


Tales of the Anunnaki

by VintageTurquoise



Category: Andromeda (TV), Assassin's Creed - All Media Types, Command & Conquer (Video Games), Independence Day (Movies), Star Trek, Stargate SG-1, War of the Worlds (2005 Spielberg)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-08
Updated: 2017-05-23
Packaged: 2019-03-31 07:59:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 28,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13970730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VintageTurquoise/pseuds/VintageTurquoise
Summary: The story of the Anunnaki - a race of Goa'uld that disappeared from history, yet left a mystic legacy.





	1. The Motive

**-= 81,000 years ago =-** (journal entry written an indeterminate amount of time later)

When I ask whether one would wish to be eternal, I've always received the same answer: No. Life has a beginning and an end. That's what waits for us. To cheat death of a prize it won by mere birthright is considered treason toward the universe. Some would abuse it. Others might grow idle. But immortality itself is not a crime. It's only a stasis; a preservation of the soul. If one lives to adapt, this isn't a hindrance. It's an opportunity.

Eternity isn't the end of one's growth. It's a new beginning.

**( Tales of the Anunnaki )  
**

Names never held much importance to my people at the time of birth. I was just another symbiote like all the others, squirming and wiggling my way through the marsh. Like maggots, we'd live on fresh corpses and rotten fruit. My caretaker even said he found me trapped between the scales of some dead fish. To the tribe, that meant I'd grow to take on the role of a caretaker myself. Why? Because most of my kin preferred the hollowed-out, mummified corpse of the Unas: land-based creatures who served as living hosts once we'd come of age.

Personally, I always felt best in the water. Its soft malleability and resistance to force protected me. The harder one struck the surface, the harder it would strike back. Yet with a gentle touch, the water meekly parts like a curtain being drawn. It's much as a caretaker, or a parent, should be.

At a certain point, our tribe stepped out on land, long before I could take a host. When they did, and I grew to become the same violent, feral serpent like my siblings, they'd moved us to a pool of water deep within the confines of a cave. From there, I grew under the watchful gaze of a creature that stood on land. And when it was my time to leave the nest, it was that same creature that plucked me out of my happy, tranquil existence.

I suppose I never forgave him for that.

For the first time, I saw and felt what it was like to be above water. I had a body with two legs, two arms and better vision than I'd ever had before. My mind merged with my host's, and suddenly, a world of possibilities I'd never even considered had opened up to me.

You can't explain that sort of wonder to a human. They don't remember what it was like to open their eyes as an infant and see for the first time. Most can't appreciate how consciousness forms in an instant. By the time they become self-aware, they've lived with it for years. It became the norm. Something they take for granted.

Hence why they call us Goa'uld, after we took Unas hosts and formed civilizations far greater than anything the Unas could accomplish on their own. Before we twisted that word in our arrogance, it simply meant... 'not Unas'. 'Beyond understanding'. I hate that word. Eventually, our land-walking neighbors called us Onac, 'oppressors'.

Imagine what it's like to be surrounded by thousands of people, yet you're all alone. Some would pity you - pretend to listen or sympathize. Others ignore and pass right through you. Once or twice, you'll find a beast you could mistake for one of us, who lash out and strike. Some do it out of fear. Others out of malice. Some, even, think they're doing you a favor.

How does one cope? We've been ostracized and treated as outsiders for much of our lives.

They call us comical. Villains who are nothing but pure evil. But we're all products of evolution. My kind lived as food to a ruthless species not far unlike humans. It's only when we bit back that we became their 'oppressors'. Centuries might pass us by, our lives and experiences trivialized by all but fellow Goa'uld, and we'd have to live with that label.

An eternity of segregation can only lead to one thing. Hate. We hated humans. We hated Unas. We hated anything unlike us, because we knew they would never accept us. So we became bitter and cruel, and ultimately... vain. Because in all this galaxy, we were alone.

As with all civilizations, we eventually broke down into competing tribes. We fought and died first over limited resources. Then we waged war over more trivial things. Perceived slights, injuries to our ego and family squabbles tore our people apart. Soon, we stopped caring about the primitive Unas and found ourselves looking to outsmart each other.

My birth into a host began during this period, before we'd become a vast interstellar empire. Before we'd become the oppressors of the Unas. Before we'd become the Goa'uld.

Our story began when my elder brother, Anu, found a strange device in the wild. It was some sort of ship that traversed the vast distances between the stars. We had no word for it, and we were only marginally familiar with naval ships, most of which were small and built for use on lakes and rivers. Our world never had many oceans to speak of.

Anu and I went back and told our father, the chieftain, Apsu. So our story began...

* * *

**-= 79,490 years ago =-**

"Forgive me." Her voice held the burden of a great many sorrows. "I must do this."

She tried to hide it. She tried to keep the truth from him. Perhaps it was because she knew he would try to stop her. She knew he would turn against the others. All these thoughts raced through the head of her father, an Unas with a Goa'uld symbiote wrapped around its brain stem. The stargate, or kadingir, lay open behind her, ushering a path to their homeworld. Her brother stood nearby, just as concerned as their father had been when he heard the news.

Enki tried to be a good father to his daughter, Geshtinanna. Her mother, Ninhursag, died after curing Enki of a poison released by his symbiote when an unblended Unas tried to remove it, no doubt to use as food. Although he appreciated his beloved's sacrifice, part of him blamed her for abandoning him to raise their many children alone. Most Goa'uld families were fairly large, but at least they often had two or more parents to mind the infants as they grew in the steaming vats of water beneath the surface. It was the only way to protect them from the frequent hunts the unblended performed, partly in ritual and partly out of hunger.

Distraught from her death, and with so many symbiotes to protect, Enki sought out others to form an everlasting bond with. But most of his tribe rejected him, laying the blame for Ninhursag's death on his shoulders. That's why he made a difficult, and perhaps rash, decision to capture an unblended female Unas and implant her with a symbiote - that of his and Ninhursag's eldest charge, Ninsar. So began a series of terrible decisions made in the wake of his sorrow and fear. He would mate with her new host and create an unblended Unas with the memories of Ninhursag and their entire tribe - the first Harcesis.

Both Ninhursag and Enki were clones, as it were, of an only child: the infant Goa'uld of both Apsu and Tiamat. As with all Goa'uld, Tiamat could then only give birth to the same child asexually for the rest of her life. Reproduction between two symbiotes of the same parents would produce no offspring whatsoever, though it was forbidden, as doing so challenged the supremacy of the alphas - the parents. But what Enki did was far more abominable in his peoples' eyes. He had his host reproduce with another, unrelated as they both were.

'His' children through Ninhursag were genetically no more theirs than Apsu and Tiamat's. They were among the privileged few to watch over and protect a large group of larvae. Both were joined in a ceremony meant to remind Apsu and Tiamat of their initial coupling, though not in such a way as to challenge their primacy. In reality, Enki knew that Apsu and his wife didn't care whether they lived or died. When any of their children perished, Tiamat would simply produce more. While their true parents toyed with war against other tribes over petty reasons, both Enki and Ninhursag cared for Tiamat's children as if they were their own.

They were disgusted. Apsu and Tiamat's blatant disregard of their children manifested itself in the worst way imaginable: to use them as cannon fodder against their enemies. Many of their agender children (as the Goa'uld lacked a gender aside from that of their hosts) were brainwashed from an early age to fight and die for their parents, with no other purpose to their existence. For Enki and Ninhursag, such a fate went against their very duty: to protect the infants from a life of suffering and death. Ironic that they should've been given such a goal from the same two Goa'uld who ignored it as a matter of course.

So the two fell in love, each dedicated to the other. They planned to rebel against Apsu and his heartless wife. They would form their own tribe. But how? Before that question could be answered, an unblended Unas found their cave and attacked in the hopes of gaining access to a plethora of fresh, young symbiotes: a veritable meal that could feed its whole family. That's when Enki was injured, and Ninhursag killed the Unas. That's when Ninhursag gave her own life to protect Enki's... and with her dying breath, left him alone with their mission.

Usually, a new tribe would be formed by the union of two unrelated Goa'uld symbiotes in the wild. They could then decide to take Unas hosts and continue their lineage on land instead of the lakes and riverbeds they naturally spawned in. Those who did found themselves better capable of defending their offspring from other Unas. But how would one go about leaving a tribe and forming their own? Arguably, Enki could've left his host and found a mate in the nearest river, but who would watch over the larvae under his care in the meantime?

Her name was Ninkurra; the offspring of both his and Ninsar's hosts. As she grew, she took on the memories and mind of not only Enki and Ninsar, but also Ninhursag herself. At one point, he even forgot she wasn't Ninhursag, and so did she. The memories of the Harcesis' parents and grandparents were too strong, such that they overwhelmed and overwrote many of her own as the years passed. Disgusted with himself afterward, Enki tried to deny Ninkurra as his daughter, reasoning it was the host's. And while the reptilian Unas had little in common with the humans Enki would come to know one day, knowing she had his first wife's mind buried within her disturbed him to no end. Then the nightmare became real.

Ninkurra gave birth to a daughter named Uttu. Afraid Uttu's existence would reveal his and Ninhursag's plan for rebellion, Enki sought to kill her after learning how Ninkurra helped her flee to the river. There, he learned of her eight children born of another wild Goa'uld and devoured each of them. A harsh decision for a harsh world, but the only way Enki could see to prevent his exile and loss of the children he'd dedicated his entire life to protecting. Instead, he merely caused the situation to become worse, leading Uttu to seek the protection of Ninkurra. Angry at him for both ostracizing her and killing her daughter's children, Ninkurra planned to repeat the past and cause Enki's death by poisoning.

At the penultimate moment, after luring Enki to her side under the guise of Ninhursag, Ninkurra nearly ripped open his host's throat with her claws. She would have finished the job had the incident not stirred up memories of Ninhursag's own death; and suddenly, she found herself unable to kill him. Instead, she did exactly as her grandmother had. She let herself die to save Enki's life. It was a tragedy Uttu never forgave him for as she took her own life.

From that day on, Enki cursed himself and vowed not to make the same mistake. He raised the remaining offspring of Apsu and Tiamat he'd been charged with, and subjected himself to their rulings. Quite frequently, he'd be punished severely by Apsu, his host tortured for his symbiote's mistakes. This made him more aware of how much his host hated him, as he could guess the same about the others. So much about him changed from that day on.

But none of it could erase the mistakes he made. None of it could bring back his beloved.

Then Anu found a strange object that fell from the sky in a blaze of fire. Over a thousand years had passed since that fateful day, when Anu told Apsu of the discovery. Due perhaps to Enki's original stigmatization, Apsu reassigned the aging caretaker to study parts of the object's database with Anu. They had determined it was a spacecraft of some sort, seemingly powered by something akin to 'powdered gold'. To their then-primitive minds, that certainly explained why some of the technology aboard had a golden glow about it.

While Anu focused on the technology, Enki paid closer attention to the extensive medical database. Thousands, if not millions, of records were full of genetic data on countless different species they had never seen before. Using some of the technology aboard, and with Anu's help, Enki could recreate small genetic samples to study. Thus began his career as a geneticist and expert on the biological workings of nature. He'd no doubt been spurred on by his time as a surrogate father to the larvae, finding ways to help them grow and survive.

Geshtinanna took over in his stead as the primary caregiver of a single batch of Apsu and Tiamat's children. She'd been paired with Ningisida and Azimua, the latter also a former larva both Enki and Ninhursag cared for. Despite no longer being in charge of making sure the infants grew, Enki continued to check in on his replacements. Unlike Azimua, Geshtinanna had been kidnapped after her first blending with an Unas host by another tribe who wanted revenge against Enki for the rescue of Inanna, Geshtinanna's sister-in-law and a Goa'uld from another tribe. Needless to say, it was another long and arduous tale, with Geshtinanna as a former ward of Enki and Ninhursag; Inanna, however, had married another of 'his' children: Tammuz. That story only ended with the rescue of Geshtinanna and the agreement between the tribes to share Tammuz, thus forming the first marriage alliance Enki had ever witnessed.

Now, they were on Earth, a planet Anu discovered in the strange ship's database. It had more gold on its surface than any other world mentioned, and - most importantly - they had a way to reach it even with the ship's inability to carry itself and a crew across the stars. The ship's former owners knew of portals, created within large, stone-like rings, capable of connecting with each other over great distances. After uncovering such a gate and its strange altar, Apsu had his tribe travel to the new world, where they could start a civilization away from their peers. Enki even created the lush, artificial environments where they could breed additional, unblended Unas for hosts into the foreseeable future.

But Apsu didn't want others following them through. Aside from their newfound allies, who were manipulated through Tammuz into turning against one another, none could be allowed to discover the stargate and pass through to Earth. Somebody had to stay behind and bury it, taking their own life soon after to make sure the secret of its location would die with them.

"Why you?!" Enki practically wailed in his host's guttural language. "Why not another?!"

"You know the answer to that," Geshtinanna hinted as she took one step back and looked toward Tammuz, who stood beside Enki with a look of regret. "Take care of them."

Before Enki could even utter another word, his 'daughter' disappeared through the stargate with one final, accusatory glare at Enki. Then the portal disappeared.

He was alone again.

* * *

**-= 77,900 years ago =-**

Lines of gold weaved along the floor, winding their way up the pillars and walls. A subtle, golden light followed each line and cut through the darkness. In the midst of it all stood what could only be described as a throne, its shape and size built for a tall, thin humanoid. Instead of its former inhabitants, who disappeared long ago, only two of its new occupants stood across from the chair, their eyes narrowed vertically in horror as a bloodcurdling screech echoed across the chamber. Blood spilled over the chair's armrest and trickled into a puddle at its base, following the lines and turning the bright, warm glow into a much darker crimson.

In that chair sat the great Unas alpha himself, brutally tearing into a Goa'uld symbiote that had been struggling in vain. Apsu ripped each tendon of the snake-like creature from its bones until it could no longer move or scream. With it dead and devoured, the primordial god of the tribe threw the remains into a container at his side holding the bodies of more than a dozen more symbiotes unfortunate enough to warrant his suspicions. Nothing either of the two, Enki or Anu, said could stop their paranoid leader from killing anyone he wished. Once Apsu believed you were guilty of something, even if you were an infant larva without a host, he would take you by the throat and slaughter you for his next meal.

"Let that be a warning," Apsu growled while licking his teeth. After letting the fear sink in a moment, he finally spoke of other matters. "You've learned something. Tell me."

Neither of them felt comfortable enough to speak. Enki tried to hold back his anger, while Anu simply looked disgusted. It was personal for one, but a mere nuisance to the other.

Apsu noticed and grew impatient. "Speak!"

Quickly, Enki took the lead. "As you wish, my lord." Following a brief, but strained, bow, Enki explained, "This temple belonged to creatures who fought a war with another. They used it to study the native species, perhaps in the hope of creating one to carry their legacy should they fail." Apsu looked disinterested, but Enki persisted. "They were called I'konia."

Sensing Apsu's indifference, Anu stepped in, to Enki's dismay. "More importantly, we've learned they built more." That caught their father's attention. Anu thought it important to keep him interested if either he or Enki were to get out of this encounter alive. "They used the technology of those creatures who built the vessel we found. It is probable they built facilities capable of locating and collecting gold."

The Unas lord's eyes glowed with anticipation, even as they fell upon a small, metallic bowl filled with a golden dust. He reached in and scooped up a fairly large mound, lifting the bowl up to his face as he did so. Both his sons could hear the heavy breathing and the brief snort that followed before Apsu laid the bowl back down on the arm of the chair. A speck of the powder caught on the scales beneath his nose, though he soon wiped it away.

"Find them," he hissed. One clawed hand gripped the edge of the armrest as he leaned forward and regarded his two sons with a wild grin. "I need more."

"It is poisonous," Enki warned. He'd like nothing more than to watch Apsu suffer, but if he didn't say it, Anu would. They both knew it. After working with the gold to power the strange alien ship's systems, they'd come to know what it could do. "We may need it to survive-" At least ever since they began using the alien technology to extend their own lives. "But it slowly kills the host's mind. Father, you can't stay in the same host forever."

"Lies!" Apsu snarled as he stood, but Anu again stepped forward and intervened.

"We will collect as much as you desire." Anu glanced back at Enki and would have told him what they were both thinking. At the very least, using it to power the alien technology could help immensely in their research. It didn't matter whether Apsu huffed some and slowly killed himself. They would unlock the knowledge of the unnamed ones without him.

"Then go," Apsu demanded. He lowered himself back into 'his' seat and regarded the scientists with doubt. "Do not withhold any from me, or you will be my next meal."

As per custom, the two bowed on their knees before leaving. Far from the inner chamber, in the cavern they called home above, they both felt a measure of relief. Anu wordlessly approached the small, round table surrounding what appeared to be a metal pole with a blue, pulsating orb encased in glass marked with several thick, black lines. While his brother worked, Enki looked back over his shoulder to make sure they weren't being watched. Unfortunately, two Unas stood guard, one by the entrance to the mine leading down into the temple, and the other patrolling the perimeter of the cave.

A bolt of electricity shot out of the orb and hit a diamond-shaped, crystalline 'window' in the corner, followed shortly thereafter by similar beams from two others nearby. They each coalesced into a single phenomenon: a tall, rectangular doorway, displaying a familiar control center. Although they agreed to call the I'konian gateway what it was, neither Enki nor Anu agreed on a single term for the strange tower on the other side. To Anu, they were stepping into hell - a military command post built in the arctic south by a people whose technology couldn't resist the command of the aliens who crashed on their world. But to Enki, the tower held the promise of a new source of knowledge, built atop another I'konian temple as it was - or, perhaps more accurately, an I'konian temple dug beneath.

"How many of our own must die before he's satisfied?" Anu asked rhetorically after they stepped through into the Ancient control center, where several of their own worked tirelessly to maintain the environmental systems keeping them alive... even as Apsu's own guards prowled and lumbered about, hoping to catch just one who would mess up. Enki considered those words, but remained silent. "We must kill him before he kills us."

Anu would receive no argument from his brother. He wanted to see Apsu forgotten as much as Anu, and he'd be willing to do anything to see that through. So, together, they plotted and schemed in the twilight chill, only their closest friends and associates drawn into their gambit. Enki would have to take the first step by calling Anu out to the Antarctic, a difficult task in and of itself. Their father would have to be taken alive in case Tiamat, their mother, refused to proclaim Anu and Enki the new leaders of their tribe. Only with one of their blessings could complete anarchy be avoided, or so they thought.

"What can we do?" Enki looked to his elder brother for answers, but though Anu could be seen churning that question over in his head, Enki didn't need to be told to guess. "The disc." The alien vessel that had crashed on their world had been disc-shaped. "You think there's an answer in the disc."

"It led us here, didn't it?" Anu wasted no time heading for the part of the base where they'd placed the dismantled pieces of the craft.

"We cannot rely on it forever." Despite acknowledging the great advances it brought their tribe compared to the others on their world who still bashed rocks together, Enki didn't trust what he himself didn't help design. "If we make a mistake, it could be a disaster."

"Gods don't make mistakes," Anu confidently answered. Their people naturally considered their alphas to be gods, so his statement only made sense if they were to overthrow Apsu. However, his pride felt misplaced, or so Enki feared.

Eventually, they arrived in an open chamber that resembled the one Apsu now ruled from. It was deep underground, far beneath the tower above. Here, both of Apsu's lead scientists studied the pieces of technology they'd salvaged off the ship to carry through the stargate. Arguably the most important part, however, happened to be the standing 'computer' at the opposite end of the room, where numerous pieces of the ship hovered behind it. Instead of using plain surfaces, the I'konians on this world used anti-gravity to hold objects of study. What those objects had been would remain a mystery until Apsu could be dealt with.

Truth, however, could be stranger than fiction. With the mystery of the I'konians still unresolved, the scientists found a much stranger truth within the alien database. Over a month of study passed, during which both were forced to continue seeking more I'konian temples by unlocking the secrets of their gateway. In the meantime, they left the search of the alien data to others, including a member of the tribe who had allied with Apsu long ago: Ninazu, son of Ereshkigal. When time came to review their discoveries in the evening, it was the day Ninazu had been assigned that their most important discovery was made.

"Adar?" The word for the particle that defied all efforts at a reasonable description couldn't be translated properly into what would later be ancient Goa'uld. Future peoples would call it by many names, but 'omega' would be the most familiar to those on Earth. For Apsu's tribe, the term referred to a planet they'd discovered in the database as belonging to this solar system: Saturn. Why it had been named as such eluded them, though Enki would later speculate. Anu, however, didn't seem interested in speculation as he continued to read.

"It appears to intersect Kia and Zi." 'Earth' and 'Spirit'. Fanciful terms for the physical and spiritual dimensions. According to what even Enki could read, the 'adar' connected physical lifeforms to something in a separate dimension. Whatever it was, it appeared to be the source of consciousness, unless he'd been reading it wrong. Either way, Anu skipped much of it to get to the parts most relevant to his plan. "Instability may cause ruptures between the two realms that, when controlled by means of..." They couldn't read the next few words, but a cursory search with the same symbolic structure would later turn up the plans of what they called the gisnu, or 'light bringer', as it powered the alien vessel by producing a great light.

"This is it. This is how we can stop him." Enki didn't see how, but Anu persisted, his eyes alit as they wandered over the scrolling text on the holographic display before them. "We ensnare his soul and leave him an empty shell."

Something about that plan disturbed Enki more than the deaths of those symbiotes Apsu devoured. But he said nothing, knowing full well they'd never get Apsu to leave the security of that place he now called his temple. This could be the only way to end the wanton slaughter of their people by a maniacal and psychotic tyrant.

Without his brother's voice of concern, Anu built the first of a series of devices that Enki knew would haunt him from that day forward:

The Eye.

* * *

Anu flexed his terribly sharpened claws in front of Tiamat, the mother of them all. She'd been tied to a tree, her clothes torn from her shoulders before the soldiers and followers of Anu. Some seemed to take a perverse glee in seeing her brought down like this. Others looked as uncomfortable about the matter as Enki felt, though the latter had to bear witness up close. He thought they might spare her the same torment she put so many of them through, but Anu thought it better to appeal to the lowest denominator: the vengeful.

Rather than give some plodding speech, Anu instead had his general, Enlil, hold her head and wrench her mouth open. Then he reached in and pulled out her tongue... literally. His claws had cut through the flimsy tissue and left their former 'mother' screaming in agony, even as much of the sound was muffled by the blood accumulating in her throat. Those happy to see the tyrant in pain cheered and hollered in the Unas way. Enki merely watched, his brow creased and mouth slightly agape. He never thought he'd see this.

Normally, the Goa'uld-infested Unas would give each other some sort of honorable death in battle. This clearly wasn't one of those times. Even those disturbed by the sight felt some measure of satisfaction. They each had loved ones among the dead left back on Una. Even Enki couldn't help but remember the death of his beloved Ninhursag.

Once it seemed she could no longer breathe, Anu and Enlil both stood by either side and reached down. With one swift, rough motion, they bore their claws through Tiamat's legs, causing even greater distress in their captive. Finally, Enlil cut the ropes binding her to the tree, and she instantly fell in to a pitiful heap. Her entire body shook - either in fear or from the blood loss, Enki couldn't tell. But Anu stood over her with a smug sneer as Enlil retrieved something from behind the tree. By the time he handed it over to Anu, Enki knew what it meant.

"Now, mother," Anu said as he hoisted the heavy stone club and held it over her broken form. "Proclaim me as leader. Or I will make sure you're alive to see your precious Kingu torn apart, piece... by... piece."

Tiamat could only weakly nod her head and gurgle something that sounded like affirmation. That's all Anu needed to hear. His grin widening, he looked up at the others who'd gathered there. Not many of them were left. More than half the tribe had died in the civil war led by Anu and Tiamat. There were few prisoners among them, but Enki knew of one. Kingu.

What a horrible sight it must've been for Kingu, the Goa'uld who had a secret affair with Tiamat after her husband's loss of sanity. It was made even worse as Anu lifted his club and brought it down on Tiamat's head, shattering bone and organ with one well-placed blow. As if to add to the kind of torment this memory would be for Enki's closest pupil, Anu fell on one knee and tore into Tiamat's flesh like the beast he possessed. If only Kingu had listened to his tutor and focused on his work, he'd not be so affected. Yet Enki couldn't blame him. He'd been a young Unas once too. The host's feelings couldn't always be pushed aside.

"I am your alpha now!" Anu exclaimed as he stood, a mad look in his eye only magnified by the blood that covered him from head to toe. Those who truly supported him were in an uproar. Those who only wanted Apsu and Tiamat out of the way were less enthusiastic, though if they didn't make Anu believe they were, they'd be as dead as Tiamat's followers. "You're no longer bound to Apsu or Tiamat! From now on, you will answer to me!"

_If you don't turn out like the ones we fought_ , Enki thought to himself. He'd remind Anu of this later, when none of the others would overhear. Otherwise, such a statement would be seen as a challenge, and the tribe would expect Enki and Anu to fight to the death. Knowing full well Anu was the stronger between them, Enki wisely kept his mouth shut. However, there was one issue he could point out that might avoid a new tyrant from being born.

"We are not your children, Anu," Enki pointed out. Goa'uld formed tribes around the two progenitors of their kind. But with few 'unrelated' Goa'uld left among them apart from the tribe of Irkalla, there'd be no way to produce new symbiotes - and thus, no way to form a new tribe. "How do you expect to create a civilization when we can't even give birth?"

Despite feeling personally challenged by Enki's tone, Anu withheld himself from striking. It was a legitimate concern, and the others would expect an answer. So, he considered his words carefully and spoke with force. "We are no longer on Una. Their rules will not apply to us." Before Enki could persist, Anu continued to address the others. "From now on, you are all Anunnaki. You are children of Anu!" Speaking in third person, Anu exuded the same arrogance as their parents. "Follow me... and I'll be sure we raise a thousand strong!"

Another cheer from the warriors. Their voices crowded out the silent concerns of the others. But, as Enki noted during his life, the 'strong', such as Anu and his warriors, survive... while the 'weak', like Enki and those who wished to avoid such brutality, perish.

_Unless_ , he wondered, _the weak become the strong_.


	2. The Plot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anu launches the coup, and Enki finds a new source of hosts in the realm of the ascended.

**-= Approximately 77,800 years ago =-**

"You must find a way to save us," Anu had instructed his brother, who remained in charge of the research being done from the alien craft. They'd had centuries to unlock its secrets, yet what Enki had focused on was building new technologies from the specifications and materials provided by it. But even Enki couldn't work miracles, or so he warned his brother. There was no way to alter their symbiotes to breed with one another. They just didn't have the genetics to birth new generations. "The answers are there. Keep looking."

_What does he think I've been doing?_ Enki waved away the messenger who brought him the tiny, discus-shaped holographic imager with Anu's message on it. His brother had been too busy keeping the tribe together in Mesopotamia to stop by and say 'hello'. Not that it mattered to Enki, who felt Anu would just breathe down his neck anyway.

So far, he hadn't found any answers. Part of him wanted to recommend they try to splice their DNA with the planet's varied wildlife, but that would require the death of at least one of them. _Haven't enough died to satisfy his ambition?_

Instead, Enki focused on the Eye - the device they used to trap Apsu's consciousness from a distance, killing the body in the process. He'd studied much of the aliens' research on evolution and found a strange and foreboding thing. _Ascension_ , he read in silence while his assistant, Nidaba, oversaw each of the scientists' efforts at altering it. _A state in which the physical body fades and becomes pure energy. To what end?_

According to the aliens, ascension could've been the next step in their evolution. But, more importantly, it could help them escape the bounds of the universe. Each ascended being recorded and analyzed had formed their own collectives around certain phenomena. He didn't know what to make of it, as astronomy was hardly his specialty, but it seemed clear some could enter these phenomena and emerge either in a new universe... or a different time. Making a mental note of this, he turned off the console and looked back just in time to see Nanshe approach him with that toothy grin she always had.

"They finished the modifications, as you requested."

"Good," Enki growled as he slowly stood, ignoring the pain in his muscles. He'd spent too many years in this host. They aged far too quickly. "Take me to it."

Nidaba made sure he wouldn't fall or stumble on his way to the Eye. His host was weak, and the interior of the alien ship they reconstructed had a rounded floor, obviously designed for a species who could walk or crawl on both wall and ceiling. They'd used I'konian technology to piece it back together around both the gateway device and the Eye, both set on one 'side' of the round room. Once they were at the pedestal, he leaned on it for support and watched as the dome upon it glowed. "Father..." She crept up from behind him and put a hand on his arm. "Are you sure we should be doing this?"

"I can see no other way," Enki answered with a sigh.

"But what if they find out? What if-"

"Let me be the one concerned." He looked her in the eye with a sympathetic look. Nidaba had been under his and Ninhursag's care back on the homeworld, where she miraculously avoided the wars Apsu and Tiamat waged. On Earth, however, with Anu's bloody campaign... "You've suffered enough."

With that, he stretched out his hand, reached for the dome, and briefly hesitated. What he was about to do could turn the heavens against them, or so he'd already warned Anu. There'd be nowhere to run or hide from ascended beings. And with their powers, they could easily decimate this small, proud tribe with more ambition than any Goa'uld before or after them. Could they really risk it? Or because of the population crisis, did they have nothing to lose?

"You don't have to do this." Nidaba wanted to offer an alternative, but all she could give were false hopes. There was no other way. "There's always a way."

Enki held his hand over the dome for a moment, listening to his daughter as one might hear their conscience. But as anyone who'd ever been in a position of power would know, it was a voice that could be easily drowned beneath the demands of the many.

So he let his hand cover the top of the dome, and suddenly, all the lines of power running through the room lit up in a bright cacophony of heat and energy. A growing screech made each of the scientists, including Enki himself, falter as their heartbeats quickened and their noses, ears and eyes leaked with blood. With his other hand, Enki reached out and tapped on the control panel for the Iconian gateway. A new burst of lightning struck out from the glowing, blue orb, which met two more in the center. An interdimensional door appeared, as predicted, with a line grid of golden energy encompassing the light inside.

What felt like an eternity passed, and when the light show was over, with one final burst of energy accompanied by a distant boom, they could open their eyes and witness their future.

Now merely light given humanoid shape, the energy they'd just ensnared from the other dimension could clearly be seen. It was a man, curiously devoid of scales or reptilian features, but certainly a man. He looked terrified, but his screams and struggles couldn't pass through the gate or the net of golden tachyons holding him in place.

"We... we did it," Nidaba muttered almost incomprehensibly in awe as she stared up at the creature. "We caught an ascendant."

"Indeed," Enki opined, leaving the pedestal so he could walk around the gateway to get a better look at their first catch. "He is partly de-ascended. Notice the clothing." He pointed out the simple, white clothing the ascendant wore. Some sort of brown vest fit over his long-sleeve shirt, which hung untucked from his linen trousers. Even his feet were partly visible, revealing sandles and the strangely clawless toes. "This must be what they wore before ascension."

"Incredible..." His daughter admired the figure, which still had a glow about it. "Will the glow remain after he is removed from the field?"

"Unfortunately." Unlike her, Enki felt a headache coming on from staring into the light too long. Although the light wouldn't be as strong, it would continue to glow dimly off the skin under certain conditions. He much preferred the dark of the I'konian temples or the caverns back home. "We can identify him with the alien database, if they monitored his people."

Without waiting for his permission, Nidaba ran over to where they kept the strange data rod they'd uncovered and translated with the help of others found at the crash site. Thanks in part to the fact these aliens were also monitoring and experimenting on Goa'uld, they'd begun to translate Goa'uld language into theirs; so Anu and Enki could reverse the effect.

"His name's Amelius," she read from the inscriptions on the rod as they changed with a soft glow. Enki always wondered if that golden glow shared between so many different species' technologies had a common source. But now, he'd become certain of it. "They briefly abducted him almost fifty million years ago. His ascension potential was low."

That's about as good as it would get, Enki knew. The aliens weren't interested in studying social structures or philosophies. All they could understand was the biological data and, curiously, proper nouns. The rest of their language was based on mathematics and genetics. At least on that point, Enki could relate. "Keep the field stable. Don't let it fluctuate."

Nidaba hadn't been clued in on this next part of his plan. "What are you doing?"

Carefully, Enki climbed up on to the platform raised in the center. When he found his footing, he stood up straight and tall, facing the man who now stared back at him with confusion. Enki made a personal note to develop some way to make sure their next catch would be unconscious. Just that stare alone made him shudder.

"No." Nidaba realized what was about to happen. "We don't know if he's ready yet! We need to run more tests!"

"I have one more day on me, Nidaba. One week... with luck." Enki bared his sharp teeth, causing Amelius to turn and struggle again. "This must be done."

With his only hindrance vanquished, Enki abandoned his Unas host and invaded the Ancient's new body: reptilian jaw open, Enki stood before the lethargic figure of the young man, his bloodshot eyes affixed to the figure's back. The four-jawed head of the Goa'uld larva crept out from deep within the Unas' throat. With a single hiss, it sprung forward and perforated the skin, snake-like body thrashing about as it burrowed into the neck. Bloodless, the intrusion was still daunting to observe. When it was over, and the beast swathed itself around what passed as the Ancient's brain stem, it was in control.

Finally, Amelius ceased his struggle and lowered his head to peer toward Nidaba. His eyes glowed. The blending was complete.

After Nidaba released the field, Enki would feel the ground beneath his feet once more. But, more importantly, he felt revitalized, particularly in mind. Memories of his host's life before ascension flooded his senses, and Enki now had the answer he'd been seeking all along.

"The Ancients will be our future."

* * *

Years later, every one of the Anunnaki had taken an Ancient as host. They found in these new bodies a renewed sense of vigor and stamina, no longer dependent on the gold dust to maintain a long life with the alien nanites buried deep inside each of their former hosts. For once, they were were free... Isu, as Enki had taken to calling them. Anu didn't care for the name and continued referring to them as Anunnaki. So the two brothers had another disagreement over the naming of things and, as always, the pride of Anu won in the end.

Nearly a century later, Anu, now in a host named Jupiter, led his 'children' toward the stars. Using primitive spacecraft derived from the technology procured of both the alien vessel and the I'konians, they constructed a space station called Agade, from where Anu would rule. In his mind, it only made sense. Apsu, the fallen god of darkness, ruled from beneath the Earth. Why wouldn't the god of light, in contrast, rule from the heavens?

Quite the contrast, Enki tried to stay above the surface but below the stars. He'd been perfectly happy to move his own research to the more temperate climate of Mesopotamia, where he could take over Apsu's former 'temple' and build something more marvelous on top of it. While he did this, another took his place at the Antarctic tower, where they'd begun using the stargate to follow up on several addresses found in the unnamed aliens' database. Since the development of the Pieces of Eden, access to the ship's deepest subroutines had become so simple, even a primitive Unas could do it.

At the same time, cities were being raised all across the surface, and frequent expeditions were being made through the stargate to other planets. In a few short years, they found a world not unlike that of their former home planet, covered in swamps and tall mountains. Many chose to abandon Earth and settle on the world now called Nibiru, or _New Beginnings_.

It was here that a meteor struck years before. As the atmosphere bled from the freshly-made wound in the planet's sky, the Nibirans tried to counter the effect. But no matter what they tried, their efforts would fail. Using the I'konian shields, powered by gold, happened to be their only recourse. And without an ounce of gold found naturally on Nibiru, the burden for their survival fell on the shoulders of those who stayed behind on Earth.

Now, someone would try to shift the balance of power on Nibiru away from Anu and his governor, the first born of Apsu and Tiamat - and thus, the eldest brother of their killers.

Gunshots echoed through the grandiose halls of the palace on Nibiru. Bullets chipped away at the beautiful wall carvings of labyrinthine patterns like the ones found in the I'konian temples on Earth. Heavy footsteps and the clack of claws raking against the marble floors could be heard outside the main throne room, where the stargate stood above and behind a magnificent chair adorned with gold and jewels. Its former occupant, Lahmu, had long since abandoned it as he took a pistol from one of his guards and waited in the center of the room.

There were three ways in, and if the ears of his young host weren't failing him, the invaders were charging down each of the corridors. Quickly, he swept his cloak behind him and turned to the DHD that stood in the center of an eight-pointed star colored on the floor. Just as he began to dial the address for Earth, so he could send a message to Anu, one of the doors opened and gunfire from a weapon held behind it took down one of his guards.

Soon enough, the entire throne room would devolve into chaos as the guards were cut down while Unas charged through the gates. Finally, Lahmu finished putting in Earth's address and had just settled his hand on the great, red jewel in the center when a bullet struck him in the back. As the stargate activated with a flurry of power, Anu's governor on Nibiru and eldest brother fell to his knees, then finally on to his back.

As his vision began to blur, a figure stepped into frame above him carrying a pistol. But he didn't need to see to know who it was. "Alalu..." He croaked as blood began to fill his mouth. With a cough and a sputter, he uttered, "Why?"

"You can thank your youngest brother." Enki. Damn, Lahmu thought. Of course the one in charge of Earth would send someone to stop Nibiru - and Anu - from making such costly demands. No doubt he sent Alalu so his own hands could remain clean, and Anu would focus less on him and more on Alalu. "I'll send him your regards."

With that, Alalu aimed and fired at Lahmu's head, ending the ancient Goa'uld's misery.

While the rest of his men secured the throne room and the rest of the palace, Alalu slipped a crystal skull out from beneath his robe and focused his mind on Enki's. Soon enough, a phantom image of his co-conspirator stood across from him. When he witnessed Lahmu's corpse resting at his feet, Enki scowled. "Was that really necessary?"

"You're the one who convinced me of the importance of this mission." Alalu gazed sternly into his compatriot's eyes. "If we kept him alive, he'd eventually reveal your part in this."

Enki sighed. Although Alalu had a point, he didn't want to admit it aloud. He'd seen more than enough death and suffering for one lifetime.

"Having second thoughts?"

"No." Enki shook his head and looked back at the stargate, which was the only thing maintaining their ability to communicate at this distance. "Our people have suffered enough of war." With a frown, he turned and stared down at the body once more. "If the deaths of a few will save the lives of thousands, so be it."

"Sensible words," said the man whose thirst for power had made him a political threat to Anu among the rest of the Council. "Now, about my payment..."

"Once I secure the stargate, we'll send the components you'll need to construct a hundred surface-to-orbit missiles with nuclear warheads." Another promise Enki felt uncomfortable making but believed had to be done. "Anu won't attack by stargate as long as you've got the shield in place. When he approaches your planet with his ships, destroy them.

"But leave Anu alive." This time, Enki glowered at Alalu. "Because if you don't-"

"I know the score," Alalu interrupted with a growl. Their alliance had been tenuous at best, but this early in his reign, he couldn't afford to be making enemies out of both Anu _and_ his brother.

With naught but a slow and heavy nod, Enki's figure dissipated into thin air, and the stargate deactivated with a woosh. Alalu lowered himself down to his knees above Lahmu's corpse and reached down to remove the golden necklace he'd been given to symbolize his leadership over Nibiru. As he stood, he smirked and gazed at it a good while before dropping and crushing it under foot. Unlike Lahmu, he wouldn't be a mere governor of Anu's.

He would be a king.


	3. The Conundrum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Unas, a species enslaved to work the mines and factories, are dying. Enki is tasked with finding a replacement.

"Alalu had been our last chance," Enki's golden image admitted to whoever found his holographic message in the future. Maybe it would be a human, or maybe even himself. There was just no telling at this early stage, long before Minerva had even constructed the device that allowed them to peer into the future. "Our last chance to avoid civil war."

Anu sent Anzu, as close a pupil to Alalu as Kingu was to me, to negotiate with him. I went along as a co-advisor, that thought on my mind. Little did I know Anzu's true purpose at the time. Anu had crushed Alalu's revolt on Nibiru only after a period of captivity. Now, Alalu had fled here, to Earth, with a ship carrying the warheads I'd given him.

At first, most of us feared he'd target the volcanoes like he did on Nibiru. It was a futile attempt to thicken the atmosphere following a meteor strike about a century before. When this only made things worse, he tried a second tactic: sending a ship into the asteroid field in the hopes of finding more gold to power the cities' shields. He took every avenue to avoid making demands on Earth, which had caused so much suffering and death. It appears the universe believes only one of us worth saving. Either Nibiru or Earth would be left standing.

Knowing what they had to do, the Nibirans joined Anu and forced Alalu to flee... toward us. I had little choice in the matter. Anu had already sent an invasion fleet to my home.

There, Enki stopped and wandered listlessly around. "When did I start thinking of this place as home?" He wondered aloud, each footstep becoming increasingly slow and deliberate. "When did I abandon my hope we'd return to the homeworld some day?"

In the back of his mind, he knew. It was after he met Nintu, his wife, and became guardian to a single boy: Kingu. But could he go on record with that, knowing full well it could be used against him? With so many marriages an emotionless affair, theirs was unique. Unlike Ninhursag, Nintu proved less ambitious and focused on the matter of their work. She tried to save lives, Unas particularly, when they came to us injured and dying from work in the mines.

"We could never allow the Ancients to act autonomously. Not if we wanted them to do the same kind of dirty work we made the Unas do." Enki continued in earnest, not wanting to miss out on the point of his recording, which had no doubt been lost somewhere in all this self-reflection from the beginning. "The day we took the Ancients as hosts, we felt more alive on this planet than ever before. But that's neither here nor there."

Anu's demands of us killed many. Too many. We were on the cusp of revolt, our Unas slaves dwindling, while Nibiru flourished and prospered. Yes, I meant that doubly. We shipped them gold to power the technology Anu and I reverse-engineered from the Arcturian ship that crash-landed on our homeworld over a millennia ago. They ate like kings, while we had so much less to sustain our cities and homes. Then that damn meteor struck Nibiru.

I knew Anu would make even more demands, so I helped Alalu organize the revolt. When he wasn't able to find a way to reverse the deleterious effects the meteor had on Nibiru, the people there joined Anu and forced him out. So, now we were back at square one...

Anzu was like a son to Alalu. Maybe not literally, but the boy spent more time studying under Alalu than he did with his own parents. Until Nintu, I never really understood how anyone could expect their own flesh and blood to share the same roof, the same meals... now, I can't imagine a day without them. Alalu left him behind for his own protection when he fled to Earth. As I feared, Anu wanted revenge... and he sent Anzu to get it.

Enki stopped there for a moment, lowering his head as he turned away. "When we were Goa'uld, we didn't think twice about using our families against one another. But ever since we took these scale-less hosts, we've developed a... what's the word?" He looked up, though only to think without continued distress. "These Ancients called it 'caesent'. Conscience."

Before their ascension, these Ancients lived in flourishing cities with populations in the millions. My people lived in caves as parts of small tribes, always living in fear of our predators... and each other. Now, here we were, trying to change our ways and live like these Ancients did. But so many of us could still remember a time when even the idea of these cities didn't exist. Who could've imagined we'd make it this far?

None of it could've been accomplished without our children. Igigi, we call them. Watchers. They maintained the facilities where we mined and processed gold, among other materials. Farms, aqueducts, power plants... we stood on the backs of these children like we'd always done. The only difference was that these same children weren't forced to go to war with one another. We were united under one banner, one ruler: 'father' Anu himself.

So the propaganda goes. He rarely visited Earth, and his 'empire' was split between himself, his master general, and I. For the most part, I ruled Earth when the general went off to war with Alalu. Even then, I didn't want to be known as the god who gave us war. Kingu kept me loyal to my older brother, and Nintu made certain I had a family to worry about. I couldn't care less about the politics until they became impossible to ignore.

That's why I wasn't happy to see Alalu land on the Great Continent (Africa). Mere days behind him, the fleet under Master General Enlil returned, seemingly ready to wipe him off the face of the map. But Alalu's missiles outnumbered his opponent's ships, fourteen to one. So, Enlil enacted plan B: Anzu.

Somehow, we gained an audience with Alalu. I'd hoped we'd convince him to stand down. His mission, the one I'd sanctioned, failed. War between Nibiru and Earth was inevitable. Alalu might've wept, but it wasn't the realization that gave him reason to cry. It was Anzu.

If Anzu failed to convince his foster father to stand down, Anu ordered him to take a kopesh and cut his father off at the neck, killing the Goa'uld symbiote in the process. He tried to put it off, plead with Alalu day after day, but in the end, there was only one choice left.

I stepped in. Just before Anzu could tearfully catch his father with his back turned, I wrenched the sword out of his grasp and cut into Alalu myself. The man who brought the war to our doorstep turned to me with a look of regret, blood pooling from his mouth. Just before I made the final pull to dislodge the blade from his throat, I saw in his eyes... relief. Relief that it was me who dealt the killing blow, not the boy he'd cared for like his own.

To this day, Anzu won't forgive me. I don't blame him. I wouldn't forgive me either. My father once ruled as a tyrant far worse than Anu, and I spent so much of my life planning to kill him that I didn't know what to do after. For centuries, I grew more bitter and distrusting of others; so much so that I couldn't live my life. Anzu didn't deserve to go through that.

But now, every one of his kind - every Igigi - will have to take the life of a parent. All because of the failure of one... and my own inability to face Enlil and end this war before it started.

* * *

It never ended. Again, Anu called on Enki for his aid. Although technically in charge of making innovations related to the technology found in both the spacecraft and the I'konian outposts, Enki wondered if he wasn't just some glorified wrench - a tool used to tighten the screws on Anu's hold over the people. Surely that's what all of his inventions had been. What about the inventor, a puppet with strings pulled by his own older brother?

"At least you don't live in the shadows," Kingu reminded him during one of his many visits to the prison beneath the island of Dilmun. It was a prison complex made of a network of mines dug out by the Unas slaves shortly after they arrived. Hearing the screams and lamentations of the prisoners terrified Enki, who could only imagine what the sinister and sadistic overseers did to them. After his capture during Anu's revolt, Kingu must've suffered from similar treatment: a fact evident by the scars that warped his face. "You're not forgotten."

Enki failed to suppress a shiver at those words, though the air in Irkalla was - against all expectations - kept cool... arguably to torture the captive Unas, Kingu included. He'd just finished his story about Anzu and what he had to do to keep a son from murdering his father. This was about the hundredth time he came here to talk with Kingu. In a way, Enki probably sought absolution from the son he'd betrayed. But Kingu would never give it, just as sure as Anu would never change.

"He wants what he can't have." Unas knew they were the backs on which Anu and his predecessor built their empire. Many were revolting nearly every day, and many more fell to Enlil, Anu's former general now turned 'king' of Earth. Soon, Enlil felt it necessary to use the warheads Enki built for Alalu against them. Millions died, some their sons and daughters, sacrificed in the name of order. To Anu, all that mattered was replacing them.

"If I give in," Enki lamented, "I'd be doing a disservice to those who died. Anu and his son would continue to treat our lives as a game. One race of slaves replaced for another."

Kingu couldn't look Enki in the eye, even if the shadows didn't cloak the both of them in such everlasting darkness, the dim glow stemming from Enki's host's skin notwithstanding. His torturers burned out his eye and blinded the other with sulfur. But Enki could already imagine the sort of long, hard stare his old pupil would give him.

"We've found a native creature to act as a template. With genetic resequencing, I can give them a mind capable of taking orders. Our Edenel could keep them docile."

To that, Kingu snorted.

"You don't approve," Enki deduced, but quickly added, "Neither do I." Arms rested on his knees, he lowered his head and tried to sort out his thoughts.

A sense of unease passed between them. Nothing but their heartbeats and slow, methodical breathing echoed through the cave. They didn't have anything else to say. How could they, after nearly seven centuries of conversations? What more could they add? Even after Anu's revolt, Kingu and Enki knew the other so well that few things had to be said. To Kingu, Enki was like the father he never had; and to Enki, Kingu _was_ the son he never had, ever since Tammuz took his own life. Not until his recent marriage, at least - and even that took a lot of effort to reach.

"I don't need your approval." Though Kingu could've thought it was his former tutor who spoke those words, Enki knew who they belonged to. A second light shimmered into existence nearby, far brighter than any Enki could provide. "... or his."

"Enlil," Enki bitterly noted aloud, if only for Kingu's benefit. "I asked for time to speak with Kingu _alone_."

"You've had enough," Enlil argued. With a flick of his wrist, he summoned two of his soldiers, both cloaked in nigh-invisible armor, to step forward and apprehend the Unas prisoner. Enki stood and would've protested, had a third not appeared, ready to fight the old inventor if he raised even a hand in Kingu's defense. Kingu, for his part, only looked confused and startled. "You said your last words. Now it's time to get to work."

Before Enki could utter a single word in protest, Enlil raised a hand holding an Apple of Eden and commanded his Unas guard. A familiar curved blade emerged out of the shadow behind his former pupil and swiftly dug its claw into his throat. Kingu, nothing like his stoic elders, let out a terrible scream as the guard continued to gut him alive. It wasn't long before Enki could take no more and actively tried to intervene, until the third stopped him with a jab from a pain stick. Caught by surprise, Enki fell to the floor, clutching his stomach, as blood splattered over him from Kingu's writhing corpse.

Finally, the last thing he heard before the darkness fully enveloped him was the cry of Kingu's symbiote, its shrill scream deafening him in its last moments.

Later that day, Enki stood listlessly at the water basin in his bed chamber. He'd spent hours trying to scrub Kingu's blood off his face, staining the water with a permanent crimson hue. As he glared down at his reflection in the unmoving puddle of life, he thought how wrong he'd been. He was a _fool_. How could he have let this happen?

Nintu, his beloved wife, wanted to console him, and certainly she tried. A meal of his favorite kind of fish sat on the table across from the foot of his bed, and a warm fire kept his otherwise frigid room at a decent temperature. She'd even set the bed, washed his robes and sent their son, Ninurta, to his Nabu's temple. He knew she meant well by it. But his outburst when he returned home made it clear he only wanted to be left alone. He'd already destroyed most of his lab, so by the time he arrived home, he kept _some_ civility and left everything standing upright. Nintu didn't deserve to deal with him in this state, however.

Especially when he found himself unintentionally blaming her.

It was wrong, and he knew it. In the back of his mind, Enki wondered if all of this could've been avoided had he never even met Nintu. Had he stayed away from Alalu and allowed history to take its course, he'd have never come to know her - Alalu's daughter. Then, at least, neither Anu nor Enlil would have someone's life to threaten just to get Enki to cooperate. Perhaps then he could be as ruthless as his older brother or the general. Maybe he'd even led Earth to victory in the likely war with Nibiru, damn the consequences.

But that's all they were. What ifs. Hopes best left in the past where they belong. Part of him wished he could go back. Erase the last few centuries. Stop himself from telling Anu that the only way to make a feral species like those hominids into anything resembling the Unas, they'd have to use a freshly deceased subject with a Goa'uld symbiote. They needed as many strains of DNA as they could get from a single, core victim to build an entire species' gene pool. The Goa'uld symbiote provided the adaptable protein sequences required to further mutate the DNA into variable forms, each imbued with their unique form of consciousness.

For the first time in his life, Enki didn't merely despise Anu or Enlil. He despised his entire species. Whereas Ancients viewed life through a form of open consciousness that made them more amenable to ascension, Goa'uld saw life as a prisoner trapped within a shell. Not even being in control of the host wrested this reality away. As far as the Goa'uld were concerned, the body was separate from the mind. To an Ancient, they were one and the same.

To prevent their new slaves ascending, the Goa'uld would tether their consciousness in the harsh waters of reality. Enki had to make sure of it, lest they cause more trouble than they were worth. And they were worth more than gold, as far as he was concerned. They were all that remained of Kingu. A lasting legacy to the Anunnaki's fall into depravity:

Adapa and Ena. Progenitors of a new age.


	4. The Vengeance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The father passes the torch, while the son becomes a pawn in one man's quest for revenge.

Through the living image moving upon this page, you would see - and hear - the following:

A deep breath perforated the darkness, followed by a sigh of air.

Something began to glow amidst the shroud. The light was of the most genuine silver, peeking through the intricate lines etched into the surface of a half-sphere. This only source of brilliance was oddly embedded in the enclosed surface of a block or altar of some sort. What was most significant about it, however, was that it illuminated the face of the figure hovering behind it:

His face was elderly, and he wore not only a beard of white, but also an open, golden helmet that covered an alabaster hood merged with a delicately layered, ivory cloak that gave him a spectral demeanor. As his large, gruff hands reached out on either side of the smaller dome, his eyes turned upward and narrowed at the sight of another stepping into the glare of the device.

The other being was somewhat similar, but arguably far younger. Raven hair cut short and groomed with care, this man seemed nothing less than resplendent. His own cloak was fashioned in a manner akin to the older, yet he lacked the same intimidation with which his overt senior wore the piece. His pale eyes glistened in anticipation as he approached the bisected globe.

As the elder one turned to look off into the distance, the faint figures of many more began to shimmer into existence, each one wearing towering mantles congruent to those now being worn by the two poised in the center. When the process of their arrival was complete, the elder gazed out among them, and all of them bowed candidly before composing themselves to witness this auspicious moment.

"To the foundation of a legacy," the patriarch began in his own eloquent tongue. "This body is not to perish, but survive. I have come a long way to this world, bringing each of you to paradise. All of you I have protected, as those of my own flesh. As you stand today to witness my departure, know that I have chosen not to leave any of you for eternity."

That was when he turned and beheld the younger man standing across from him. "I will forever live as part of my son... Enlil."

Among the crowd stood a certain figure that remained distant from the rest. He seemed only marginally older than Enlil, and he was undoubtedly a man of some prestige, much as the others. Unlike many, however, he wore a golden brace on both his wrists. As the proceedings took place, he glowered at the proud man. To the adroit eye, there was no doubt that this was Enki, the one who watched his beloved friend and brother-in-spirit die under the heartless purview of Enlil.

"To Enlil, I bestow my possessions and the secrets I have found." He gently reached forward and took Enlil by the hands, holding them just beyond the surface of the dome. "All of my children will bow to you, Enlil. Lead them with wisdom, and let not one stray from my path."

Through an obscure smirk, the young one answered, "As my father wills."

"So shall it be," the graying Anu brought the ceremony to a final culmination of all the ritual and prescience thus far. "Peta babkama luruba anaku!"

As soon as he finished, Anu brought the boy's hands to bear on the sphere, which reacted with a shrill screech and an intense flare. All of the ones present may have been blinded by it, but none dared avert their eyes from the altar. The brittle body of their father was now cast in this magnificent luminescence, and only his grandiose robe fluttered as if in some invisible windstorm. For his part, the one named Enlil merely looked on with an expression of fiendish exuberance. As Enki would later write, "He had tasted the fruit of power - and he would never return."

After the light had subsided within the window from which you view these events, some time had passed. Now, you would be viewing the interior of a majestic room of smooth, blackened metal curved to create the sense of being within the very shape of a human blood cell. Golden light began to glimmer from the floor, wall, and ceiling, creating intricate patterns of lines and circles that would otherwise be alien to you. Dark surfaces akin to counters rounded the perimeter of the room, all containing scattered remnants of exotic tools and samples never seen by the human eye.

Now, standing in the middle of it, was the man that had reluctantly participated in the previous liturgy. Kept busy by the prospect of a new discovery, Enki worked tirelessly into the dawn of each day, ignorant of the passing of time. Nothing about his people mattered to him anymore; no amount of time could ever erase the grudge he held for the Anunnaki's new leader. As the renowned geneticist grew more frustrated in the process of piecing together another of the accursed illusory devices ordered by Enlil, he slammed a fist into the table.

The images of Enki's thoughts passed across the portal, revealing the traumatic memory in abject detail: the young man begging for rescue as he was strapped to the chrome facade. It wasn't bad enough that Enlil had taken the life of a lad Enki had considered a son, but now he had decreed that the human race was more trouble than they were worth. Enki convinced his brother to wait a week for him to determine an answer to their dilemma; the tau'ri were, after all, reproducing faster than the Anunnaki, and even with the advantage of the Pieces of Eden, Enlil knew they could not all be sustained until the rest of the world had finished terraforming.

Enki was about to lose the very project he had sacrificed his life for - not including the dispiriting sacrifice of Kingu. As upset by the loss of his pupil as he was, Enki had continued his work for many thousands of years. The state of ascension his host's body was in allowed him to live much longer than he could in any Unas - yet that was not a welcoming fact to a man that had outlived the child he had raised.

Yet, all was not lost to him, for he had soon found another, not to replace, but to restore Kingu's memory forever.

"Did you wish to see me?"

A youthful voice spoke out from behind the miserable man that now stood with head bowed over the incomplete Ankh. He chose not to address it at that moment, as he was attempting to regain control over his mind. Recently, he had become subject to these momentary lapses in attention, though they were not to the extent they would be thousands of years from then.

"Father?" The young male's voice called out to him again, slowly tearing him away from his trance. A hand settled on his shoulder, and he cast his scrutiny on the boy, who seemed naught but a little over a third of his age. "Is it the dream again? Has it taken you?"

With a distinctly soft smile, Enki spoke. "Do not trouble yourself on such matters, Ninurta. Come, tell me what has become of your journey. Did you retrieve the tablet as I instructed?"

"Yes, but," the lad replied skeptically. "Why did you wish me to bring it to you? Is it not the property of our lord, Enlil?"

"Not anymore." Enki ushered his young progeny to the side, where a strange, elliptical capsule stood. The container consisted of two curved covers that could be pulled away from the center to open. With merely a wave of his hand over the top of the container, both covers opened and allowed him access to that which was contained inside. Not even having to bend down to reach, Enki retrieved an object that would be familiar to the young man.

"Is that the Tablet?!" Ninurta exclaimed as Enki held it in front of him. "But how?!"

"What have I taught you regarding assumptions, my son?" Enki didn't give him a chance to respond with the same recitation he was forced to repeat every day he worked with his father. "This is merely a clever charade designed to emulate that which portends the 'future'. Even so, it may have many of the same conclusions as the true tablet. I would not want Enlil to doubt its ability.

"Now, hand me the Tablet of Destinies, so that I might prevent my brother from taking advantage of my creations again."

Ninurta hastened to obey his superior, raising the tablet from within a fold of his robe. He paused to inspect it thoughtfully, as if wondering if he was making the right decision; yet, moments later, he set the device in his father's hand and took the counterfeit in its place.

Barely giving Ninurta a glance, Enki instructed, "Take the copy to Enlil and tell him it is genuine."

Since Enlil took Ninurta from him, Enki knew that Enlil was attempting to replace him with one under his command; that was the only reason Enlil adopted Ninurta as a son, after stealing him from Enki. As Ninurta was the the most prominent son between Enki and Nintu, Enlil knew he would grow to become as brilliant as his father. Hoping to prevent young Ninurta from coming under the influence of Enki's antisocial ways, Enlil had Nintu killed for the sake of Enki's tau'ri experiments, before having Ninurta brought to his court and fashioned as one of his own sons.

All that Enlil had taken from Enki was merely turning the otherwise kindly figure into a self-centered, paranoid shell of what he used to be. At every death or loss of a loved one, Enki became more and more convinced that Enlil was his greatest enemy. Nothing would stop him from one day dealing with Enlil once and for all. After all, the blood of his beloved ones cried out for vengeance, and one day, he would have it. All of that passed through Enki's mind as two transparent, cylindrical columns raised from the floor in the center of the room, revealing solitary human figures in stasis amidst the shrouds of the milky liquid they were contained in:

"Adapa. Eva. All hope rests with you."

This is where the image grows dark and does not come to life again, signifying the end of the tale.


	5. The Effulgence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A revolt erupts among the Anunnaki. Adapa and Ena steal the Apple in the confusion, but all isn't what it seems to be.

Colossal cities of polished towers and lavish gardens spread across the landscape. The human population had seen a recent boom, and the Anunnaki had required more space to contain them all - such was to be Enki's next momentous undertaking. No doubt he saw this as an occasion to exact his revenge, but he would have to delay until the population multiplied to a much greater extent before enacting the ambitious plan. For now, he could only abide by the words of Enlil. So city upon city was brought forth from the earth, each devised to act as an internment camp for the human slaves and their Anunnaki masters.

For many centuries, estimates of the growth rate of mankind were unnerving. It would not be long until they inordinately surpassed the quantity of their 'owners', and such was a dilemma that Enlil could not abide. Thus, it came to pass that Enki was charged with begetting an air-born virus efficient at propagating among the human populace without disturbing the overseers. What was to be the intent of this virus? As Enki himself elucidated, "It will scatter their language to the winds."

Such is what it did, for promptly after the virus was unleashed, the humans of earth began to have difficulty communicating with one another. In time, it was essentially futile for anyone to correspond with others apart from their direct family. What only Enki knew, however, was that the virus would only be effective once - each subsequent time it was employed, it would be less effective than the last, as the human immune system naturally produced an intransigence. Soon, they would be able to restructure themselves among many civilizations, as Enki had anticipated from the outset of his scheme.

Many millennia later, humanity had overwhelmed their pre-viral population numbers. "There's no fighting fate," said Enki in his holographic recording to Enlil, elucidating the circumstance for Enlil's discernment. The sole alternative, as the Anunnaki population began to dwindle, was to begin exploiting prime humans for breeding prospects. However, few, among the elder generation, would welcome such a harrowing notion, even if it was the only way to save their species.

The younger, more impetuous, generation was the first to take action to resolve their plight. Known as the Igigu, these earth-born Anunnaki were the ones accountable for the humans. As it was, they had labored apace with the Terrans, though many were overseers in possession of Pieces of Eden. Ninurta, the son of Enki, was among them. These juvenile malcontents quickly began abducting and mating with humans in forbidden rituals hidden from the eyes of their elders. However, it was inevitable that such behavior would eventually come to light, and when it did, the Igigu were forced to organize a rebellion. Humans became the witless soldiers forced to fight for their many masters, and war was tearing the sons of Anu apart. Even the earth itself was often prey to their ambitions and distress.

It is notable that this was the first true war fought on the planet known as 'Terra'. The false gods of the Anunnaki set the stage for many future conflicts between the humans themselves - those poor, tragic figures born of the devils of malice and envy. Entire families, both human and Anunnaki, were sent against each other, and the malleable humans were often forced to choose between two evils - there could be no good among such passionate greed.

This war only ended with Enlil's ruthless deployment of technology, developed by Enki, to target the consciousness of both the ascended hosts and the parasites within them. Capturing the conscious in a realm akin to that used to imprison their ascended hosts, the virus was key to Enlil's success. However, his victory came far too late: the hybrid Igigu, soon to be known as Nephilim, were to be born to both captive and willing human incubators throughout the world, putting the finishing touches on the first phase of Enki's ultimate plan for revenge.

Unbeknownst to many, as even the mothers were soon to learn, these hybrid children were to become the progenitors of a superior evolution of mankind that would one day take on a title of great significance in the universe's grand epilogue:

The Assassins.

Without the implants of the human slaves, and with the evolved mind of the ascended Alterans, these children were raised with a certain resistance to the grave Pieces of Eden, which would one day mire that world's history in conflict and destitution. However, not even these hybrids could save the human race from themselves - yet Enki was there from the beginning, orchestrating events so that these children could grow and have children of their own. Hidden by their creator's effort, they were raised in secret - and Enlil's fake tablet of destiny would merely contort the mental images of those hybrids, so as to make them seem as docile and obedient as any other human slave.

It was not long before Enki decided it was time to resolve his dilemma; Enlil had to pay for the misery he had caused - not only to Enki, but to all the humans and Anunnaki. News came of the ultimate achievement from Nabu, the creator of the true Tablets of Destiny and Enki's rival in the realm of science; such a rivalry would not have existed had Enlil not cleverly given Nabu a great amount of control over Enki's creations. Though later generations of humanity would know Nabu by other names, including Mercury and Hermes, one thing was certain: his final creation would be beyond anything Enki could even begin to conceive.

However, it was not with jealousy that Enki sought this majestic opus. What Nabu had created was a key achievement in our story of permanence. To the Anunnaki, it became known as the Adar, or Star of Ninasu - what would become the symbol for their great empire; to a humanity of later epochs, it would be called the 'omega' particle. The symbol was to, one day, be adopted by humans as well, including a famous people known as the Romans, and the notorious Templars of a more recent era. Yet, its symbolism was secondary in importance to its primary purpose.

That radiant star was capable of recreating the entire universe. The trouble was that it could not be controlled. As Nabu sought a means of bending it to his will, he imprisoned the light within a realm contained in the heart of the same form of device capable of ensnaring the ascended. Such a destructive achievement was, as Enki had hoped, capable of bringing back the people he had lost long ago. However, he would need to appropriate the device without anyone correlating its loss with him, and that meant he required individuals still untethered to the altered Tablets of Destiny.

His withered old hand reached for the glowing half-sphere near the center of his personal lab. As the generations had gone by, Enki was forced to take on additional personnel, along with a myriad of large production centers all across the world, each manned by an Igigu overseer and a horde of human slaves to work in the grueling conditions the facilities demanded. Those centers were each attached to a separate laboratory, where Enki and other head scientists would continue researching the Grey technology in an effort to reverse engineer many aspects of it.

Yet, despite all this change, one thing remained the same. Two crystal-clear pods arose from the ground, unveiling the figures of Adapa and Eva suspended in the murky elixir. Indeed, they had not aged from the day Enki had created them. His lips crept into a virulent smirk as he thought about what he would do with Enlil when the heir of Anu was grovelling at his feet. Such thoughts were better left for a time when such an event would occur, however. For now, he would have to be satisfied with awakening the only two prodigies of his creation and instructing them in their tasks.

That was not easy, however. When Adapa and Eva were unveiled from the metal wombs that cradled them all these years, they were as infants - immediately curling up the moment the cold, dry air graced their skin. It would be some time before he could awaken them, and when he did, they would be understandably frightened and confused. There was little Enki could do to assuage them that all would be fine, as he had long since lost the ability to empathize with anyone. However, he was able to clearly convey his plans for them, without once disclosing his ultimate goal.

To the newly-born templates of humanity, Enki bestowed a unique Piece of Eden. "When you find the Adar, apply this to that which contains it. When the great light fades from beyond, you must then remove this apple and bring it to me." With a macabre expression, he continued. "Your efforts will undoubtedly alert Nabu to your presence. It is imperative you escape his temple with that apple. Do not allow yourselves to fall to his mushussu. They will not pursue you a great distance should you make your way to a higher elevation."

Thanks to Enki's close relationship with his son, Ninurta, he was able to plan the rebellion of the Igigu as a distraction. That would allow Adapa and Eva the time to break into Nabu's vault and leave with the Piece of Eden in hand. However, fully aware of his creation's capabilities, Enki planned on their betrayal of him. The moment they saw the torture the others of their kind were forced to endure, they would plan to flee with the Adar and prevent the Anunnaki from ever using it to their own ends.

It was during Adapa and Eva's escape from Nabu's facility that they climbed to the top with Piece of Eden in hand. Their dexterity and grace was far advanced for their kind, but that was due to the way Enki created them. They swiftly escaped from Nabu's mutant Unas, only to find themselves in another precarious predicament. Atop one of Nabu's towers, Eva turned to Adapa with the Piece of Eden in hand. "Adam, I have it."

"Eve," Adapa exclaimed, just as Eva shouted "Look out!" They had not expected Enki's preparedness. Floating far above the ground, two of Enki's Gallu machines hovered with their metal claws extended, as if to beckon them into a fatal embrace. One struck forward, hoping to clasp either the Piece of Eden or the hand gripping it tightly, but Adapa managed to interfere with a martial kick to one of its appendages. "Eve, run!"

Though Eva was reluctant to leave Adapa behind, she knew what was contained within this device may have been more important than both their lives put together. Therefore, she ran. Future generations would interpret this as cowardice, yet Adapa knew the truth; she made a valiant effort to protect everyone. Though the Gallu sought after Eva, Adapa continued to interfere, until the newly-born humans escaped from the facility's perimeter into the dense forest beyond.

Enki would never find them again, much to his chagrin.


	6. The Reformation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enki deals a final blow to the Anunnaki. But it takes the words of his son to remind him how far he could fall.

This page of the journal seems far different from the previous entries. Though the other entries were written in a manner befitting the classical D'ni script, this entry was written in a far different language - and, what more, on a parchment that seemed to predate even the orator's, as time has not been kind to the faded ink on the page. The occasional stroke of a brush or ink pen completed the otherwise broken letters and symbols that graced the page, and the Orator's own signature adorned the bottom with an illuminated inscription befitting his past entries.

As with the other pages of the journal, you have spent many a dark and dreary night deciphering the extravagant parlance committed to this page. Yet, you were not the only one to remember such a night, as you peered out over your work. The translation took much longer than you had expected, but when it was done, the archaic legend of an age long lost became all the more clear. In a hushed moment within your musty old study, you decide to intently explore that tale:

* * *

A shout of anguish cut through the otherwise silent night. It was cold and dark, and the wind was no less bitter than to be expected. I could not have forgotten that night, as it was a most glorious time. My name was Enki, and I was a person of importance among my kind. No night before, nor any night after, would be as important to me as that night: for, you see, I had him in my grasp. Like a possessed creature unsatisfied with his lot in life, I held my lifelong tormentor by the throat. How I gleefully bore my demented gaze into his eyes, as I watched him cough and sputter. He writhed in my clutch, and with every twitch and quiver he gave, I felt more and more satisfied.

That devil was no less wicked than I. As Enlil, he slaughtered many in the name of power. All those years he spent as the heavenly one, he tortured, maimed, and killed to make himself feared of all the sons of Anu. Even the waters of chaos no longer flow because of Enlil's devastation. I should have known that he would follow in the footsteps of his father.

Long ago, when we first arrived on this desolate world, I was tasked with creating a lush environment from the technology we had known so little about. To accomplish this, I had a temple established in the first city we sons of Anu had constructed: Eridu. At that time, I was a prisoner of Abzu, as were all his sons. None of us believed ourselves to be of Anu's progeny, but that would change the day Anu raised us from our dungeons into a realm tarnished with blood. In our Unas hosts, we tore each other apart with nothing but our bare hands. We bathed in the blood of those slaughtered, and feasted upon their larvae after tearing their necks asunder.

But Anu's rebellion was yet to occur, and I was merely considered a liability by Abzu, who stationed two of his sons to oversee my project at the temple proper. What I feared then, as I feared with Enlil, was that Abzu would tire of us all one day, as he tired of many. Abzu was the only one of us that had lived so long without an ascended host, and as the years passed, he grew increasingly impatient with each of us. Each season, we would hear of his murder of yet another that disappointed him. One day, I presupposed, he would slay all of us in one furious outburst.

That was why my words were passed on among the others of the future rebellion. With their help, I took the elderly creature and entrapped him among my many other curiosities and experiments. Kingu, my old friend, was not pleased with this, citing such spurious things as honor and duty. I tried my best to extol the virtues of my actions, but Kingu would hear none of it. Our last farewell was surely strained, and I cannot bear to even remember a moment of that difficult time. Alas, I know what he did the moment he left my presence: he notified the queen consort of Abzu, Tiamat, of my actions, and those of the planned rebellion.

My friendship with Kingu had been a thorn to my relationship with Anu and the others of my kin. His loyalty to Abzu was renown, and I was seen as teetering on the edge of duty: I would either have to ally myself with Anu in the upcoming days, or follow Kingu and pray that Abzu would absolve me of my sin. In the end, I made my choice, and it would forever change the destiny of us all. I chose to rise up with Anu and my kin, despite their distrust of me. I wished to live a long, fruitful life, as I am certain many of us wished after.

How foolish of me to believe in one as self-centered as Anu. Would that I could return to those days and eliminate myself from the picture, I would have prevented his ultimate tyranny. I watched in terror as he drew out Tiamat's torture, cutting her open from neck to waist - after forcing her to proclaim him 'father of the gods'. It was then that I knew: I had merely replaced one tyrant with another, and we were still no less safe than we were with the one called Abzu. All I could do was argue for Kingu's pardon and release from Anu's broiled rage, but I could not stave that hellion's thirst for blood. That was why he allowed Enlil, his son, to oversee the execution of my childhood friend. Though they said it was for the sake of my research, they did not give a damn about any of it.

Such excuses continued, and more died from Anu's paranoia. True to his nature, he named us all 'Anunnaki' - sons of Anu - to further elevate himself and his pompous title. As if that mattered. The day we discovered the process of ascension, I knew that no matter how highly Anu thought of himself, he could never match what the Alterans had accomplished.

No, we went beyond that. The technology of that star which had collided with our insignificant world was capable of rendering their very natures inert. Though horrified at the prospect of destroying a great race of beings, I gave way to Anu's commands, and I aided in his ultimate goal of capturing those cherubs of light.

It was Anu's son, Enlil, that continued this harrowing course of events, leading me to take action. When I finally had him there, in a grip that was slowly choking away the last breaths of his life, I thought I would take his life without compunction. Nothing was going to stop me. Enlil had already groveled at my feet. Though his frail, old body appeared as victimized as mine, I felt no sorrow or guilt; in fact, I did not even see him as an old man - I saw him as what he really was: a parasite in more ways than one.

"Father, no!" I heard a voice echoing throughout the dark chamber that had been Enlil's throne. Yet, I knew where to locate its source. "You can't!"

That was when the young host of my son cast himself from the darkness into the light shining down on the bronze throne Enlil was now tied to. I cast my passionate glower on my son, only tightening my grip around Enlil's throat as his elderly host continued to heave and suffocate, each attempt at drawing breath merely causing more convulsions and aches throughout his putrid chassis.

"Father, don't! You can't become like Anu! This has to stop!" His shouts of protest rung hollow in my ears, as I continued to seek retribution for countless centuries of pain and misery.

Though I would have wished nothing more than to continue my perlustrations against that implacable foe, Ninurta's words soon drew me from my trance. Very gently, I released my grip on Enlil's neck, and faced my son. He had grown much since the days he retrieved the Tablets of Destiny for me. All I wished, then and there, was to see him with his family forevermore. No matter what Enlil did, he could not corrupt my one, true son. Touched as I was, I soon embraced him as I did when he was still young, just born of that saintly figure that was his mother.

The time for such sentimentality soon ended, however, and I found myself wondering what to do with that accursed son of Anu. Without the Adar, I could not undo his heinous work. The answer only came to me when Ninurta visited me one day while I was standing amid the empty, glass shells that had once housed the entire progeny of the human race.

"You cannot change what has happened," Ninurta told me, his words unveiling a wisdom far beyond his age. "All you can change is what will happen."

It was then that I knew what to do: I was to take Enlil's host as my own, so I could overcome my failing body and discover the esoteric knowledge Anu had long since collected since the days of our revolution.

I am to become the new ruler of a people long begotten by blood sacrifice, to bring us into a future in which we would no longer be ruled by our divisive egos. We are to earn a lasting peace among our brethren, and to do so, we must first put an end to this dispute that I began.

And I will begin this unification with the death of my dissenters, as how can we begin anew when the senseless supporters of Enlil still prowl about this world?


	7. The Deluge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A recounting of the events prior to the Toba catastrophe, as written by a mysterious writer called "the Orator".

A story is only as true as one's perception of it. This was why I abstained from composing Enki's account in full. One must not only observe what had occurred, but also pass into the essence of the soul for whom the circumstances were arguably most admissible. Only through this transcript, from Enki's personal effects, could I aspire to affirm those timeworn days through the eyes of Enki himself. Though able to see through the profound psyche of any being, I deemed it best to let Enki speak for himself.

To say how the mighty had fallen was neither my place, nor was it anyone else's. However, that is what ensued in the epilogue of such a recurring history: Enki was overwhelmed by an extraordinary obsession to undo his mistakes. This motivated him to coerce his advocates into a civil war started by the rebellion of the Igigu. With the last of Enlil's legacy expunged, Enki fixated his attention on humanity. He ordained the consolidated legions of the Anunnaki to seek and reclaim the Adar - apprehending any tau'ri that ventured to hinder their search. It was Enki's initial disregard for the future that left him oblivious to the events that were soon to interrupt his judicious crusade - until it was too late.

A noble that had aided Enki in seizing Enlil had brought Enki's focus to matters beyond humanity. This noble's name was later recalled by many tau'ri as 'Minerva'. Though the war with humanity did not falter or cease, as Enki was resolute in his intention of recovering the Adar from Adapa and Eva, Enki himself elected to avert his concentration to the matter of a future calamity. It was Ninurta that persuaded his father to assist Minerva, as it may have been the only means to prevent Enki from becoming further inundated in the dream that had long since entwined him in its vitriolic grasp.

Leaving command to his second eldest son, Marduk, Enki retired to an underground temple that Minerva had built. They were soon joined by another named Juno - or Uni, as some would call her.

Though he promoted their research, Enki found himself periodically musing of his son, Marduk, and the nature of the so-called 'war' with humanity - so-called because, as far as humanity was concerned, it was a culling. Practically no tau'ri witnessed by either an Anunnaki or an Igigu were left to live in peace. It was due to Enki's fixation with such distant thoughts that the research was chiefly left to the ones called Juno and Minerva. Enki sought only to collect the combined data, and he was not as industrious as the other two.

With captive tau'ri, the three could seek a process of withstanding the coming disaster. Juno yearned to use Enki's early tau'ri project as a mode of fabricating genetically engineered bodies capable of accommodating their evolved minds; Juno presumed that she could spawn a species that could weather the storm, as their half-ascended bodies could not withstand the late cataclysm. Alas, Enki staunchly rejected any prospect of reviving his bygone research with humanity; he could not bear to cause more misery and hardship among his people, even if it meant rescuing them. When he realized that Juno was surreptitiously gleaning information on his long-forgotten project, Enki harshly reproached her.

Due to Enki's unwillingness to use either tau'ri or Anunnaki test subjects, Minerva was compelled to formulate an alternative. She speculated that she could make their bodies capable of defying the catastrophe by means of transfiguring parts of their bodies into steel. Though dubious of any future benefit the experiment might hold, Juno induced her husband, Aita, to aid them in their undertaking. When Minerva preferred to test her experiment on a live subject, Aita proffered himself, with his wife's reassurance. What happened after was the crucial event leading to Juno's madness.

Aita could not subsist in the new body, as his mind fragmented within its otherwise lifeless shell. Despite the ministrations of Minerva and the other Anunnaki, he could not be salvaged. The moment Aita's essence was seized from him, he had been in a modified tau'ri body - the body of one that had died in prison, and so was excluded from Enki's regulations. Whatever the case of that moment, Juno would not curb her sorrow, even as the time for their ending crept precariously near. Aita's death became a fundamental distinction of her person, and it led to her animosity toward the others of the project - especially Enki, who, as she resolved, could have averted the tragedy, had he permitted Juno to use the project of his buried past.

It was then that Juno cultivated her contempt of humanity; as far as she was concerned, they were as much at fault for her husband's demise as Enki and Minerva. In the matter of prohibiting Juno from jeopardizing the world with her animus, both Enki and Minerva contrived a way to imprison her, using one of Enki's earliest projects: the same reality-shifting device that had ensnared countless ascended Alterans.

Juno's imprisonment served a dual purpose, as Minerva now had access to a project that Enki had long since buried. Acquiescing to her appeals to inspect it further, Minerva was able to construct a paradigm known as the 'Eye' - an altered design of the Grey device itself. It was Minerva's prospect that she could learn how to shape the most base forms of matter in the universe to reverse the crisis that was to precipitate their downfall.

When I ponder why Enki accorded Minerva the immunity to administer her enterprise, I realize that he was still endeavoring to mend his past. Enki longed that Minerva would ultimately reconstruct a feat long lost in the crossfire of the civil war: that of the Adar - the empyrean genesis that is both the alpha and omega of this narrative. After Nabu was found dead, having achieved the deliverance of his soul from its body, Enki scoured furiously for the man's research. Nothing was discovered among the ruins of Nabu's temple, and Enki had not unearthed the apparatus by which Nabu was able to create such an infinitely dynamic source.

They were unable to use the Eye when the time came, in spite of their prior achievement. Juno had shrewdly ascertained their plans, and had already altered Minerva's research by planting her own code into the project's data entry. The occasion when Minerva complied with the instructions on how to forge such a contrivance, she had unintentionally used Juno's alterations. What Juno had expected was that she would be emancipated from her celestial prison after Minerva strove to use the apparatus to stop the impending apocalypse.

Minerva decided not to enable Juno to escape, and Enki concurred - he did not wish to see his tau'ri creations become victimized by Juno's enmity. As a result, they acceded to the ruination of the world. The planet was desecrated by great pillars of fire and lightning, and the remnants were abandoned in underground temples and caverns to suffer alone.

The entity that endures beyond both the physical and quantum realms, to which I consigned much effort into illustrating in my first entry, may have had much to do with Juno's foresight. I watched as this cryptic being(s), conjoined to the very advent of our universe, was/were influencing events in a way that did not utterly beguile what some call 'free will'. How it/they accomplishe(s) this both daunts and astonishes me. Its/their capricious embrace seems to overtake all in its path, molding even the very universe it touches to the whims of that being(s).

As for its elemental ambition, I am still irresolute. For all its faculty, I would postulate that its objective is something of prodigious consequence - if not for the universe, then at least for its own sake. How could I posit that such an entity would have an ego as we do? I cannot elucidate such a premise, for even I do not know for certain. What I am certain of, however, is that it is there, and that is the end of the matter for now.

The chapa'ai had long been restored to its place in Antarctica after many of Enlil's (and Anu's) worshipers had fled to the world Anu had settled another colony upon. Enki would not risk their return, and he nullified the inclusions made during the days of Abzu: that Grey science that had amplified the length of the portal into a secluded galaxy, in which the ancestors of Enlil's apostles endure to this day. Without it, the Anunnaki could not voyage between their 'new' homeworld and this world of humanity - and so, Enki and his disciples managed to reign without opposition on Terra, save for those tau'ri that had long tasted freedom and would never yield their autonomy again.

However, the tale of the Anunnaki does not end there; neither does the tale of humanity, which took a route so akin to the Anunnaki that I feel it unnecessary to reiterate much of their history. In fact, the story of their own descent into the inanity that is the future had only just begun.

Penned,  
The Orator


	8. The Shadow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One last entry in the Orator's journal regarding a species of Harvesters and their goals as tied to the last of the Isu.

Among the immensity of aeon, many believed in a transcendental retribution - one effectuated by the heart of their own universe. Such was the case here, as scores of terrans presumed the catastrophe to have been brought upon them for betraying their gods. They did not see as the forlorn sons of Anu did. Yet, for all their perspicacity, even these 'gods' were unable to prevent the reckoning of their world by a vengeful nature. When even the one called 'Enki' asked why, he was acknowledged with but a single word from the aging database of the cryptic Grey vessel:

Vedi.

Perhaps there was more to this word than its own definition would suggest. Perhaps the destruction of that world was not but a mere effect, but a response to the power shown by their emolument. Perhaps that power was a reminder of the primordial age from which the Grey sought to create life amidst the stars. Perhaps it recalled how the Grey vitiated the works of another species: the Engineers, as terrans would call them.

In that galaxy where the parasitic sons of Anu were born, a species was created by the Grey. Their hope was to bring themselves closer to the forms created in what I shall call the 'Alteran Galaxy' (for that is where they left that species to evolve). Though they strove for a prolonged time, they could only leave their new forms upon a world that had never seen life. These beings evolved into several forms, but they were all akin to those Alterans from a realm long distant. They were the first humanoids to appear in that so-called 'Milky Way Galaxy', and they would soon engineer the first life there, as many others did in remote galaxies.

However, the Grey sought to use these Engineer's works to further their own, and so these creators were to never be known beyond the skies of their world. I postulate that, in a universe similar to ours, they may have left their mark on the galaxy: a message hidden in the very fabric of life itself, as they create. Should they have failed, they would merely be the progenitors of a species far more savage than they could have ever conceived of their own will. Yet these are mere speculations, and only worthy of thought if these beings had a role exigent to this universe's ultimate fate.

They would not. So now, I shall move on.

That word so extant in the Grey database was unknown to Enki, who survived in the aftershocks of the deluge. With as much damage as was done to that core of Grey knowledge, no son of Anu could truly discover its meaning. Yet, as I write, I see its foreboding intimation. It was not as disconnected from the events of Terra as it might first seem, but this Vedic connection to that earth was far from clear for the survivors on that world. None could see its true significance among the searing ruins and bodies of those fallen to the sun's wrath.

The Vedi were a people - or many peoples - of the Grey's universal venture. Born of those celestial entities of the star fissure, they were manifest in their creators' own form. Like many others of grey flesh, they sought to become greater than their creators. In the mythology on the tau'ri world, I discovered them mentioned in an extent text as fallen angels - fallen for, as the Vedi did, endeavoring to overcome their fathers and mothers by destroying their creations.

What the Grey left behind was a species - the Engineers of word past - that scattered their being across countless worlds. Though much of their creations would be distorted or ultimately destroyed before completing their evolutionary maturation (by those Grey of which I have mentioned), one would become that species for which I have dedicated this series of entries upon: the brazen goa'uld of a dismal world. This was pertinent to the Vedi, who sought to outdo their fathers in a manner so unlike that of the Igigu:

To destroy the creations of the Grey, and repopulate the galaxy with their own kind.

Such was the manner of their crusade that they destroyed many worlds, using what technology their foolish parents left for them in ages long lost to history. The Engineers were among their many targets, felled by that which they could not understand. Spreading across the galaxy in the manner of a plague, the Vedi soon found that world upon which imposters wielded the instruments of the Vedi's ancestors. That curiosity others might have had was shortly abrogated by the Vedi's desire to propagate themselves and defy the architects of their people.

The Grey were not without some recognition of that insignificant world, and they decided to protect it. A sect of their kind were left to guard that world with vigor. In that extent text, to which was ascribed names of celestial beings called 'demons' and 'angels', I discovered that humanity may have known them as the 'Watchers'. Approached by the renegade Vedi, these Watchers soon abandoned their duties to that world, no doubt coerced into doing so by the enticing words of the Vedi leader: one humanity would come to know by many names, including Angra Mainyu, Lucifer, and Kane.

I find myself unable to see into the mind of that puissant being, save for its connection to the god-like being(s) at the very marrow of our universe. Though my purview beyond this universe is limited, I can sense that this figure was not the only one - rather, he was merely unique in our universe, to which shared a connection with many others of his kind across the chaotic cleft between realities.

As I write this, I find myself fearing for the sanctity of all realms in which sentient beings attempt to live. Why has that ultimate host(s) of our universe invaded countless others with its spawn? How did it/they bring these precocious forms into existence with naught but words whispered into the minds and souls of mortals? How could it/they manifest its alluring nature through the very communication of one living being to another? Its manipulations have been careful and subtle, but the effects of its labyrinthine dominion have been clear to me since I began this journal - though so unclear to many others.

Whatever the case, that Vedi, to which I will forever ascribe the name 'Kane', convinced the Watchers to begin abducting the primitives among mankind, isolated as they were among the forests and jungles of that world. As the Watchers used humanity as one of many species to derive genetic material from, all in the pursuit of outdoing their creators in finding the ultimate evolution of their species, the Vedi had other plans. Though the sun knew what was to come, it could do little to prevent Kane from seeing his scheme come to fruition.

Each star has a life of its own, and this was as it was since the very birth of this universe. However, as with any life in this forsaken realm, it could be driven by the will of that/those supernal puppeteer(s) - especially through its/their manifestation in the one named Kane. The avatar it met this false Vedic with was soon to bring with it the commandments of Kane, and the one(s) speaking through him, to the rest of its kind.

With their acquiescence, the sun erupted, casting its sword of fire across the expanse between itself and that small, defenseless world called Terra.

When all was over, and both humanity and the sons of Anu were forced into the very ground they had spilled blood over, the Vedi sent forth one of their sub-species: a slave race called the Areas - known as the 'sons of Mars' (and quaintly given the simplified title of 'Martian' in later years) to the tau'ri of later epochs. These Areas arrived on the planet after it had been scarred by the sun's impetuous actions. Without word or warning, they planted leviathan constructions throughout the world, all to which I believe the word 'tripod' could be bestowed. Then they left without a word.

A world as poisoned by the star from which it received life is as good as dead to the Vedi, so they waited with extraordinary patience for the planet to regenerate itself. When that was done, Enki and his ilk would emerge from their caves and temples to see a world far different from the one they had once lived on. Even the Grey vessel, which could not be moved during the chaos that had afflicted them, was long lost to him - though it had, in reality, reacted to the pandemonium by blanketing itself with that same energy capable of ensnaring the ascended, inadvertently creating a new realm in which my people would come to find one day.

Enki was, however, even less aware of the schemes by those among the heavens. Instead, he had been entranced once more by a vision - though by now, his vision was to rebuild the world with the aid of humanity. The Adar had long disappeared, as did the descendants of Adapa and Eva, but that was no longer Enki's concern. Rather than rebuking his beloved creations, Enki welcomed those that survived the star's fury into his presence, and they built a civilization that could be of their own hands, rather than the shadows of the Grey. What little survived of Enki's works were not integrated into this new civilization, save for whatever could protect them from another such catastrophe. Among many of the survivors' works was a great tower which acted as a grand temple dedicated to the peace achieved between humanity and the patrons of Enki - a tower that may have come to be known as the 'Tower of Babel' to the people of later eras.

Surely they would have left behind more of their works had Enki and his followers not discovered the process of ascension that the Alterans had contrived many generations ago. Though Enki was one of the last to ascend, even he could not maintain his mechanical creations forever, and he certainly could not leave them all to humanity. The solution, however, was not one of his choosing.

In great vessels of metal, the Areas returned. Though merely a small portion of their total population, the Areas that came to earth hoped to find a place for they and their masters to live. The Vedic empire among the stars was collapsing due to a war with their Grey progenitors, who had returned to examine their efforts in that galaxy. Kane had foreseen all of this, undoubtedly with the aid of the ineffable intellect beyond. The Areas surrounded the planet in craft entrusted to them by their masters, casting their hungry gaze on the world beneath them.

With every contentious spark of lightning within a storm as vigorous and pernicious as the deluge, those Areas creatures conveyed themselves into their long-buried 'tripod' craft.

It was a terrifying sight to see those animate implements rise out of the ground, the glow of their craft's single aperture catching sight of every miniscule thing beneath them. The horror shown by the people on Terra was not seen since the days of Soleil's furious assault. Though they ran, many were cut down by the scorching light that flared from the tripods' tendrils.

Others faced a fate worse than death. The Areas, as much of the Vedi, survived by certain substances that could be found in the blood of many species. I do not dare delve further into the inner workings of their biology, for it is different for each sub-species of the Vedi proper - and the facts of their physical essence change as dynamically as the Grey themselves. What I do know is that the Areas invading the terrans' world had been altered by their masters to survive off the blood of their human cattle. Even their 'tripods' had been designed to extract this crimson fluid from the very veins that contained them, using it to power every piece of its half-organic structure.

It would be a waste to dedicate an entire page to the description of the chaos that ensued, as Enki's technology was of no use against the Vedic invaders. Town upon town, city upon city, were all crushed beneath the lumbering appendages of the tripods. Not even what little survived of the Anunnaki cities were spared. It had seemed all was lost until Enki had considered the results of his viral experiments: those that scattered the languages of mankind, as well as that which trapped the consciousness of those sons of Anu that had rebelled at a time before Enki was ready to perpetrate a rebellion all his own.

Unleashing a series of modified viruses capable of infecting the tau'ri, Enki betrayed his creations in order to save them. Many terrans died due to the newly-engineered viruses, which eventually became many of the base diseases still afflicting Terra to this day. Though he would not be seen in a favorable light by many after his deception was revealed, what happened next was his saving grace, for the viruses had passed through the Areas' tripods' defenses. Infecting both the invaders and their machines, these viruses destroyed them from the inside out, causing the tripods to collapse even as their crews were eaten alive by the incessant bacteria.

Enki cared for his creations enough to be certain the Vedic technology could not be used for purposes akin to Anu and his kind, so he had all traces of the tripods and their owners removed into the realm that once held thousands of ascended Ancients hostage. That transcendental province, forbidden to all, became a graveyard of bodies, both organic and otherwise, floating within the tenebrous inanition that composed it. The Vedic masters did not strike, for they knew that if their subject race had been defeated, there had to be a reason - and that very reason, when they discovered it, kept them from nearing that world.

However, though the Vedi had to withdraw and remove themselves from the galaxy to escape the pressure of their Grey creators, they left one behind - one that was somehow immune to Enki's work. Kane. Though a few small sects of Areas survived in separate communities spread across the globe, they too would eventually succumb to the disease. Kane, however, integrated himself seamlessly into human civilization, and he began to manipulate events with an eye for that world which had long been subject to Anu's kind.

It is here that the tale of the Anunnaki as a race ends, and the chronicles of humanity begin. However, though much of the sons of Anu were to fade from history into legend, Enki remained a much more active force for some time to come, even after his ascension.

As I end this chapter of my universe's epilogue, another opens, and it will be explained in full - as far as I am capable. Though I know not what I shall write in my next set of entries, I will attempt to report more of my visions in a form familiar to those accustomed to stories unveiled through the eyes of those involved. I only pray that it is read and understood only by those with the wisdom to see within it a means by which to save us all from that omnipresent immortal at the center of all.

For though I may report all that I have seen, I lack the ability and wisdom to resolve this quandary from where I am.

Penned,  
The Orator


	9. The End is the Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A god commands a titan to pave the way for his conquest, while the last of the Isu stands against them.

Earth: a minor globe within the expansive, celestial chaos. It was here that a race known as the Anunnaki had lived. Here, the Goa'uld of another world arrived and settled. Humanity had not yet been born, and the planet was only ripe with animals of a type far removed from their ilk. Yet that had changed the day Enki was given a task of incredible magnitude.

On Enki's homeworld, a vessel of a species known as the Grey had crash-landed long ago. An incipient Unas, under the command of a Goa'uld symbiote known as Anu, discovered the craft and its capabilities. What he learned, however, was that the ship required incredible amounts of gold to operate, and in the interest of science, or power, Anu went forth to acquire the precious metal. This quest led him to discover the stargate on his world, and through the database on the Grey vessel, he managed to find his way to Earth. In his wake were many dead Unas, all slaughtered by his tribe in their search.

When the tribe had settled on Earth, they had sent a select few to sacrifice themselves in order to hide the stargate once more on their world. The last thing Anu wanted was the fury of his kind, and the relatives of all those slaughtered, brought down upon his own people.

Their first goal was to begin seeking and collecting gold from the Earth's surface. When much of those reserves were depleted, they began to dig deeper into the soil in search of more. No matter how much they collected, however, they were only able to activate the Grey computers - not the engine core or defensive systems. That was more than enough for one scientist among them, however: the venerable Enki, who was tasked with finding a way to improve the collection of gold by quantity.

To accomplish this, he collected many species from all over Earth and brought them to his temple in Mesopotamia. Among those creatures, he discovered that the ape was the best to use as a basis for a new species: humans. But even though they were designed as the perfect slaves, whose only purpose beyond labor was to breed, they were not able to collect enough gold to power the Grey vessel entirely. Nonetheless, at least one major advancement could be attributed to humanity's earliest contributions:

Enki discovered a design for the Grey engine core that could be reconstructed with materials fashioned in factories all across the globe. Homo sapiens were created for these tasks, and with the bare components built by these slaves, Enki was able to create this core. Unlike its use in the Grey craft, however, Enki decided to use it to explore the other dimensions it connected to, thereby revealing the existence of the ascended Ancients - a species from another galaxy that had long since abandoned their physical bodies in exchange for omniscience in the form of energy.

With access to this alternate dimension, Enki was able to trap numerous Ancients, much as a lobster fisherman would do to his catch. Each captured Ancient was then altered via the Grey's ability to manipulate matter at a subatomic level in any dimension. The result was a series of new hosts that the Anunnaki Goa'uld could then possess. In these half-ascended bodies, they could live extended lifetimes, and they were easily able to paint themselves as gods among the primitive humans. All the extra years they had were also put to good use by the one named Enki.

In the time following the forced adoption of the Ancients as hosts, Enki designed machines that were later called Pieces of Eden. With these, the Anunnaki could control humanity more effectively, as their minds were enslaved to the devices. However, Enki had other plans that contrasted with that of his leaders'.

Anu's son, Enlil, had been the one to murder Enki's best pupil: Kingu. If that had not been enough to blind Enki with a desire for vengeance, then the murder of his wife was the final blow. Enki was forced to watch as Enlil took his son after his wife's death, and Enlil had decided not to tell young Ninurta anything about Enki. Furious, Enki vowed to kill Enlil once and for all, and for that to happen, he designed an intricate plot that involved revealing his connection to Ninurta - specifically as a means of using his own son against the tyranny of Enlil. Though his plan ultimately worked, it had required Enki to betray all of his people by starting a civil war they would never truly recover from.

When Enki's nephew, Nintu, was responsible for the creation of an advanced power source known as an 'adar', Enki knew he must have it. The adar was not only capable of powering the Grey craft, it was also able to rewrite all of history - or even the universe itself - to the whims of its user: the perfect deus ex machina. Though Nintu knew how dangerous it was, Enki did not care. He had sent two of his most unique creations, Adam and Eve, to collect the adar using a modified Piece of Eden. Unlike the rest of humanity, these two were spliced with Anunnaki DNA, and were thus immune to the effects of the real Pieces of Eden.

However, Adam and Eve fled with the adar in hand, undoubtedly afraid that the Annunaki would use it to further subjugate humanity. Enki then focused his attention elsewhere, if only out of necessity. Enki took control of Enlil's host, exorcising the former symbiote from the body. From there on out, Enki ordered that all of his kind remove any semblance of their past connection to Anu by altering their names to fit a civilization without tyranny. This was when Enki officially became known as Jupiter, the name of his Alteran host. Furthermore, he decided to bury the stargate in Antarctica, all in the hopes that the last of Anu's exiled followers would never return and bother them again.

Minerva and Juno, two scientists among their kind, had recognized a much greater danger, however: that of the sun, which was slated to erupt shortly after Jupiter's victory over the sons and daughters of Anu. With Jupiter's help, they were able to test numerous means by which they expected to avert the oncoming disaster. However, they were unable to complete their tasks before the sun erupted, casting a great solar flare into the upper atmosphere that devastated the surface of the Earth. Few survived, and Jupiter was forced to make amends with humanity in order to rebuild.

What none could have known, however, was that their struggle had been watched with great interest by a figure not from any world they had ever known. It peered at its viewscreen with eyes void of light, and a soft hiss had emerged from its throat. All of the Anunnaki's history had passed by on its display, and now it sat amidst alien monitors deep within the bowels of a long, triangular shuttle. That final chapter - the destruction wrought on Earth - had yet to occur, however.

The sun continued to cast its warm glow over all the worlds of this solar system, and it had not yet erupted into the devastating form it would one day take. As the creature's ship slowly approached the sun, it began to send a message on all frequencies. While that was happening, another figure emerged from the shadows behind it, though this one was undoubtedly human.

"Are we almost ready?" It said in a man's voice. The alien merely responded with a click as it continued to work on the organic computers around it.

"Good," the male said as he emerged into the light of the display. His head was without a trace of hair, though he sported a goatee and a smirk that spoke malice. "Perhaps now we can bring salvation to the weak."

It was with those words that a flash of light engulfed them and their ship.

* * *

When the light had receded, the man from the ship found himself standing in the center of a circular chamber, where the sun could be seen hovering just above him. However, he was not focused on the intimidating celestial body.

"I thought I'd find you here."

"Kane," a young man with golden skin exclaimed as he stood in the center, his arms crossed behind him as he observed the man that had sought after him. His voice revealed an age-old wisdom, emboldened by certainty and fortitude. "What do you and your kind want here?"

"I thought it should be obvious," Kane held his arms out to the sides, as if indicating what was in the sky behind him. The other man glanced up and saw the planet Earth, with Kane standing just beneath it with a smirk on his face. "I'm here to liberate this world from a people who have disrupted the life you and your kind have been living."

"My kind?" The sparkling man said as he tilted his head to the side. His expression was clearly skeptical, even downright distrusting. "Do you speak of the Ancients?"

"Yes," Kane replied. "Surely you can see that they have done nothing but hinder you."

"Perhaps, but we are not the Ancients." The unknown man rose an eyebrow and added, "Ascended we may be, but we are much older than their... lesser... kind."

"What about those people on Earth?" Kane merely smiled slyly as he let his arms fall back to his sides. "Do you believe that those wretched mammals can tell the difference? Celestial avatar, Ancient... those parasites see you both as hosts, and you cannot deny that."

"What is your point?"

"My point is that now is your chance," Kane asserted with a fist held in front of him. "These creatures are the result of an unholy union between science and nature. They mock everything you stand for. Yet even as they succeed, you are forced to stay your hand and let them have their way."

The avatar narrowed his eyes at this man professing to be an ally. "What would you propose?"

"You, Sol," said the man that had been responsible for the capture of countless worlds. "You are the essence of the sun. Despite the Ancients' every attempt at keeping you docile, you are the undisputed ruler of this system. It is you who can make or break empires in this part of the galaxy."

Though initially perturbed by Kane's appeal to vanity, Sol began to suspect that this creation of the Vedi had a plan. And damn, did he want to throw off the yoke of the Ancients that tightened increasingly more with every passing day. "Go on."

"At this very moment, a resistance is forming among your brothers and sisters. In time, they will be able to strike at the Ancients with the support of our people, but you must not hesitate." Kane peered up at the planet behind him. Earth was nothing more than a speck in the distance, yet Kane gave the impression that he could see all the way to its surface right now. "Look at it. So small, isn't it? So young, and yet so torn by centuries of war and strife.

"And all because of a species that were born of an unnatural evolution: one tainted by those beings that have only sought their own evolution to the detriment of others."

When he finished, Kane faced the avatar of the sun once more. "Yet here you are," said Sol. "A creation of another. Odd to claim that you're fighting for us, the gods of nature, when your own kind subverts us every day."

Kane smirked. "Only to an end that will bring glory to a universe more than we could ever imagine... something other species take for granted."

The two titans stared each other down, with Sol being the one who looked ready to break. He spent untold years dealing with the menace of the Ancients, who believed it their right to dictate what his kind could and couldn't do - all because of some war they had fought in a galaxy far removed from this one. How infuriating it truly was to be lorded over by beasts that were much younger than his kind, even if they had managed the incredible goal of ascending an entire race.

"Perhaps I can do as you ask. But now allow me a question," spoke the star. Once more, he was of a resolute countenance as he kept his posture straight and unwavering. "Why should I give you that planet? What makes you worthy?"

To that, Kane could only frown. Obviously, he had not considered this proposition, and the thought made Sol feel a surge of satisfaction. Then the so-called human spoke again: "Our people have been fighting for the same cause as yours. We want nothing more than to see the forces of nature grow dominant again. And to that end, we have worked without rest to eradicate the Grey and their creations from the face of this universe."

"Would you be referring to those beings that visit this system on occasion?" Indeed, Sol was fully aware of the alien visitors, who seemed to take a particular interest in Earth.

"Yes," Kane noted without a glimmer of joy. "They created the creatures that are now living on that planet, and their own 'human' creations are no less the greater threat. If you help us take that planet, we will have a base of operations from which a new campaign can be launched. The Grey may be winning, but each victory is without reward. In time, we will be prepared for the counterstrike, and with your support, our victory will be assured."

Once more, Kane's words had struck a chord in Sol. It stood all the taller when Kane pointed out that all their hopes in this system rested with him. That feeling of being in power was all Sol desired, and though the avatar hadn't realized it, Kane was well aware of its pride.

"Perhaps there is wisdom in what you say," Sol stated simply, though he maintained an air of superiority around the grand strategist. "Yet how will your people assist mine? An Ancient cannot be killed by your conventional weaponry."

"You're right," Kane acquiesced, bringing yet another sense of supremacy to the ages-old sun. "But we have a plan in place that will lead the Ancients on a course to their own destruction. When it is completed, the weapon can be unleashed by your followers, and with it, the freedom of your kind will be assured."

Now the same entity that gave life to that world was beginning to feel swayed by the argument from this simple lifeform. Yet even as he spoke again, he began to question his next few words. "What would you have me do?"

Kane smirked once again, and this time, he strode aside and made way for a completely unobstructed view of the planet. There were only several words he had to say next, and Sol immediately knew what they would be. "Get rid of the only thing standing between us and victory."

* * *

"Do you hear me, cipher? Can you see me?"

A figure dressed in a long, ornate robe stepped into a dark room, which was only punctuated by specks and lines of gold. There was a sheer amount of work required for Minerva to build this place, and even after she had finished, they knew it would take massive amounts of gold to power. However, she had tapped into the very core of the Grey vessel, which hosted a spectacular fissure through which time itself could be traversed. Mere days before the event that destroyed their entire world, Minerva had used this place to contact a mere human in the future: one named Desmond Miles. But although she was successful, she had not convinced Desmond to contain the madness of Juno.

Now she was dead, and it was up to Jupiter - the one formerly known as Enki - to complete the calculations once more, so that he might have a chance to speak to a person in the distant future. After all, it was imperative that he find the Eye and use it, regardless of the consequences with Juno. The threat that had been upon them since the beginning was far greater than Juno alone, after all.

"Ah. There you are. Good."

In front of him, he could clearly see the golden outline of a figure standing in the midst of the chamber. As it was, Jupiter stood facing him, and it was clear that they were both in the same room, albeit in different times.

"A strange place, this nexus of time. I am not used to the... calculations," Jupiter exclaimed as he let his eyes wander. Indeed, he was never truly capable in the realm of quantum physics; he was, after all, a genetic engineer first and foremost. "That has always been Minerva's domain."

When the figure looked at him quizzically, Jupiter frowned. "I see you still have many questions. Who were we? What became of us? What do we desire of you? You will have your answers. Only listen and I will tell you how.

"Both before the end and after, we sought to save the world. We built vaults within which to work, each dedicated to a different method of salvation." Little did he realize how useful those vaults would be not long after this moment. Jupiter held his hands out, indicating the room around them. "They were placed underground to avoid the war which raged above, and also as a precaution, should we fail in our efforts."

Although he didn't want to be reminded of the war against humanity which he himself began, Jupiter mentioned it anyway. It was imperative that those in the future realized they were not alone, and though many of his own kind had long since passed on, he had little doubt that the supporters of Enlil were still out there. But that was not the purpose of his communication right now; no, there were more important things to discuss.

"Each vault's knowledge was transmitted to a single place," Enki finally stated the most important part of his speech. He pointed toward a holographic image of the Earth, which was quickly removed in a blur, only to be replaced by an image of the statue that had been erected after Jupiter's victory against Enlil and his kind. The effigy praised Jupiter and his two closest followers: Minerva and Juno, who were instrumental in the final exile of the tyrants. It stood high on an opaque 'pillar' of gold, with images of Minerva and Juno standing on either side, a fair distance from the base.

"It was our duty... mine, Minerva's, and Juno's - to sort and sample all that was collected. We chose those solutions which held the most promise, and devoted ourselves to testing their merits," Jupiter walked toward the invisible pillar, which had been embedded in the side of a wall delineated by a grid-like pattern of gold.

"Six we tried in succession, each more encouraging than the last." As Jupiter said this, he reached out to touch the pillar, which seemed to be covered in a language only he could decipher. "But none worked. And then the world ended..."

Even during that time, when the sun was about to erupt, there were eyes watching and waiting for the catastrophe's denouement. Kane and his Vedi companions viewed the marvel that was about to occur from the safety of a ship that hid behind the moon. Then the solar flare lashed out from the surface of that quiet star, and it struck the earth with a force that would be felt for many centuries to come. All of that chaos and destruction was merely a show for Kane, who watched without remorse as people - both human and Anunnaki - were caught in the flames, slaughtered by lightning, and cast into the abyss of those fissures that opened and swept so many of their cities aside.

"The earth shook for days. The fires burned for weeks. And when the ash had settled, less than ten thousand of your kind still lived... and far fewer of ours." Those events remained fresh in the mind of the man who had seen it all happen. Unable to do anything to prevent or otherwise limit the power of the catastrophe, Jupiter saw the chaos almost as clearly as Kane, though he had no idea that another had been watching. "But we carried on, together. To rebuild. To renew.

"Listen. You must go there. To the place where we labored... labored and lost. Take my words. Pass them from your head into your hands. That is how you will open the way." Jupiter only prayed that it would not be too late. All of Minerva's calculations suggested that this would happen again much later, as though an inevitable consequence of Sol's decision to smite them. However, he didn't know what to expect in the future, since even Minerva's innovation was not prophetic. "But be warned: much still remains in flux. And I do not know how things will end - either in my time, or yours."

That was it. The message was complete, and just in time, for Minerva's contraption could not continue to transmit much longer. But even as that humanoid figure faded away, Jupiter knew one thing: he would not turn on humanity and make them slaves anymore. After all they had fought for, Jupiter thought it best to let them go free, for now they needed each other more than ever. This may have meant that they would have to abandon the technology created during Jupiter's lifetime, but that was a sacrifice he - and all those who survived - were willing to make.

But only moments after the pain and devastation they had suffered, Kane, standing in the shadows behind the alien operator, smiled callously. "Now it is time to bury the future beneath them," he claimed as hundreds of large spacecraft approached the planet, each carrying hundreds of tripods. "By conquering the past, we will command the future."

* * *

A marvelous tower of glass and marble sat in the center of an ancient city. Each level was stacked atop the other, as though a brilliant wedding cake fit only for a god. Tall, white columns encircled the tower on each layer, and peculiar lines of gold ensnared the great temple as though a snake constricting its prey; these lines branched out into ornate patterns. At the top was a broad statue of a majestic, two-headed eagle, wings spread out to its sides; the statue was composed primarily of silver, with traces of gold etched into the outline of each feather, all connected to the golden 'tassels' along the tower's perimeter.

The tower sat in the center of a much greater city, though it overshadowed many of the weathered buildings below. Curved glass and chrome metal defined the city's many structures, but the occasional cracks and rust could not be ignored when each construction was viewed up close. As the image flew through the city, it revolved around the tower, slowly rising up from the ground until it stopped on the eagle he saw before.

Suddenly, a flash of lightning obliterated the statue, and the image swiftly begins to descend the tower, its focus never veering from the top. The tower shattered from top to bottom, each exploding layer sending forth a horde of shards that began to scatter and fall through the air above. When the view finally reached the bottom, the fragments of the soaring edifice were still falling, even as another bolt of lightning struck the ground where its marble support now stood in rubble. Another flash of lightning, and another, all mercilessly pummeled the ground until there was a massive crater around the area that was struck.

Humans clad in bright, flowing robes and tunics warily approached the site after the residue of the tower completed the journey from heaven to Earth. Their terrified expressions betrayed the dread they now felt. Though they were the descendents of those that survived Sol's wrath, they knew little of the calamity that befell their ancestors. No doubt the wind, which blew toward the center of the storm clouds winding about above them, and the fierce lightning would have reminded them of that lost tale, had it survived the generations intact.

An elderly man with a long, white beard and robes of gold approached the crash site in haste. People made way for him, and he was able to stand in front of the crowd that had gathered. His eyes narrowed at the steaming crater that now stained their city, and he reached forward and brought a single fragment of debris into his outstretched hand with naught but his mind. As he began to caress its polished surface, another man in ornate dress approached.

"What is it?" Before the man could inquire about the piece of marble now in Jupiter's hand, he noticed the steaming crater in confusion. "Is that...?"

"Cold." Enki let the scrap fall from his hand into the crater. In his mind, this was an omen for another natural catastrophe. "Gather your people. Take them to my temple in Eengura."

"But what is this? What will happen?"

Jupiter shot a cold glare at the human, who backed down with a grimace. "There is no time, Utna. Leave, now!"

Though he wanted to protest, the one named Utna offered a nod and dashed through the crowd until he reached the outskirts of town. Jupiter watched him go with a sad expression on his face. He had hoped that humanity would not have to experience yet another cataclysm that could destroy so many of their young, hopeful race. But the universe appeared to have different ideas, and now Jupiter believed they were about to lose many more.

Even as the ground began to crack around him, he stood unfaltering. The fissures that were now beginning to open soon tore pieces of the buildings away. Glass shattered throughout the city as people fled, and Jupiter merely watched without a word. When he turned away from the source of the fissure, however, he felt something moving beneath the soil - something he had not felt before during the first catastrophe. His withered heart contracted as he heard a sound unlike anything he had heard before.

As he glanced over his shoulder, his half-ascended body doing an adequate job containing his anxiety, he saw the ground rise and fall, as though a bubble had expanded and then collapsed beneath the surface. Little did he know, he was right. With several steps back, Jupiter reached into his cloak and took hold of the last sphere that had survived the initial destruction; the rest were now buried and arguably inert elsewhere. Despite the fact that its existence was merely a cause for the misery that had befallen humanity before, it offered Jupiter - Enki - the confidence he needed, for it could potentially save many lives today.

Before he could pull the sphere from its place, a shower of pebbles descended from the sky. What Jupiter saw next made him take a much larger step back, as though even his host's courage was faltering. A giant mechanical tendril had lifted itself out of the crater, and as it hovered in mid-air, the bottoms of the three toe-like appendages split into three metal crescents each. Though his initial instinct was to flee, a part of him withstood the fear and made him watch as the alien arm crashed into the ground beside him. Soon, it was followed by another, and then...

Then, the son of Abzu came face to face with the head of the machine. It was in the shape of a cuttlefish, and the giant eye on the front was glowing with avarice. A noise that resembled a jet engine in the powering-up stage began to grow louder as it began its ascent from hell. Though certainly terrified by it, Jupiter had many centuries to grow used to the fear caused by uncertainty. It had calmed him when Minerva had made her discovery, and it was now that it would save him from panic. His ever-observant eyes caught sight of every detail on the intimidating craft, and it seemed that the vessel was partly biological in construction.

That was all he would have time for, however. It soon began to stand above all the faded buildings, and Jupiter remained at its feet. Utna was undoubtedly beyond the city gates now, fleeing in the direction of the nearest village to begin evacuations. However, there would be no time for this city. The calculations were set, and now the only thing standing between this tripod and its human prey was their creator - and he was not happy.

The machine blared its ghastly siren, the booming noise reverberating throughout the city. As people screamed and fled all around him, Jupiter pulled the Piece of Eden from its place at his side and looked up at the invader. "These people have suffered enough. Leave this place!"

Over the sound of chaos behind him, Jupiter's voice thundered through the sky. The tripod didn't seem to notice at first, but it would soon be unable to do anything but notice. Jupiter's grip tightened around the orb in his hand. Then, just as the tripod lifted one of its legs, Jupiter held out the Piece of Eden as though an offering to the unwelcome visitors. But with focus, he was able to turn the device into something far more than a mere gift.

An explosion of gold light coursed through the air, surrounding Jupiter and the tripod before it could even bring its leg to bear on the ground once more. Though it stopped for a moment to analyze its situation, it soon tilted its head down to see one of the last of the Anunnaki - or rather, the last of the First Civilization. The craft first let out another alarm, as if telling Jupiter to stand down; its tendrils were held in place by an invisible force. Instead, Jupiter merely held the orb up higher, casting another flash of light that caused the tripod to momentarily lean back. But that was soon over, and it was able to crouch down and glare at Jupiter up close.

"I will not allow my creations to fall again! We've worked too hard to mend our differences!" As he spoke, a hatch just beneath the tripod's head opened, and a narrow tendril slithered out. Jupiter had noticed this, but he was not about to lose again. "It seems you leave me with no choice."

Before the tendril could even lash out at him, Jupiter's body divided into five. They each carried a Piece of Eden, and none were any happier than the original. Once again, the invaders hesitated, but soon struck with their tendril at one of his bodies. With a flash, it disappeared, but not without blinding every sensor and display within the tripod's main compartment.

Now the aliens found their equipment going haywire. They were blind, since they had designed the craft to rely on external sensors for sight. What's more, with the systems blind, the pilots were equally blind, for they controlled the vessel in part with their minds. None of them had expected to face a living One Who Came Before, much less one with a Piece of Eden in hand.

"I do not wish to harm other beings, be they sentient or otherwise." Jupiter's figure appeared in a flash of light within the very bowels of the tripod. "But I am left with no alternative."

Again, he held the Piece of Eden out in front of him, and the aliens began to crumble like the buildings they had destroyed. However, Jupiter took no pleasure in it. Despite them being the furthest thing from humanoid, he knew they were just as live as he was. Even more to the point, he suspected they were merely under the sway of others, as all the wars he had fought used slaves and other creations as the front-line of any army.

But a hissing noise made Jupiter aware that the craft was no less alive than it had been moments ago. Its systems were still working, and Jupiter could clearly see that when a dart-like pod of some kind had lowered through a tube that was embedded into the rear wall to his right. The noise had undoubtedly come from it, but that was far from enough to distract Jupiter in his efforts to incapacitate the rest. Focusing his energy one more time, the light around them shimmered, and the aliens were soon on the ground, as unconscious as their minds could be.

When he turned to face the pod, Jupiter was surprised to find that it had opened, releasing a fair deal of steam that reeked of something artificial. Although the light had died down to a soft glow, Jupiter was certain that it was still casting the effect that confused both the machine and its occupants. However, he felt a sense of dread wash over him when a human hand emerged from the pod and latched on to the side. Then its owner pulled himself forward, a covered foot stepping out onto the cold, metal floor, soon to be followed by his face.

"I do hope your little trick is not all you brought," said the man whom Jupiter did not recognize. "You will need more than an illusion if you plan to deceive me."

The human stood tall, wearing what Jupiter could only presume to be a cloak. However, this man's robe was dark and foreboding, much as the rest of his countenance. He wore a smirk and a knowing look in his eye that momentarily startled even the one humanity would call a god. What was most noteworthy about him, however, was the fact that he was human.

"Who are you?" Jupiter questioned, his voice covering the fact that he was unnerved by the appearance of a creation he had never made.

"Though it may not concern you, my creators call me Kane," the one named Kane stated, though he failed to mention that the name was a mere transliteration from a thought planted in his mind. "I take it you are the one your people called Enki."

"In a past life," Enki made clear as he faced the man entirely. "Why did you come here?"

"You should be fully aware of my intentions." Kane rose an eyebrow and held a hand out to indicate the device that Jupiter now depended on. "But if you should choose to ignore my request, I will be forced to bring your people to their knees."

Jupiter narrowed his eyes. "You desire this device?" He held the device up into the air, and watched as Kane's eyes briefly followed it before meeting his scowl once more. "If this is what you are after, you may find your efforts wasted. The technology can only be activated by my kind."

"Your kind and the descendants of your prototypes," Kane added with another smirk. But when he took one tentative step forward, Jupiter took one back and retracted his arm. "But I assure you, they will not be the only ones able to use those devices."

"How did you know-" Jupiter began.

"About your creations?" Kane interrupted. His eyes seemed to reach into Jupiter's soul, clutching at whatever strings it could find. "Soon, you will learn that I know more than you think."

They were now at an apparent impasse. Although the real Jupiter still stood facing the eye of the tripod, his illusion was fully aware of the man now standing within the craft. For a split moment, he felt a creeping desire to hand the device to Kane, thereby opening Pandora's box. But his symbiote rejected the very notion, and the host was forced to settle with his decision. However, his host's eyes glowed for but a moment, and Kane knew he was making progress.

"If you leave the device to me, I will make certain that your creations remain unharmed. They will live and die together, and I will prepare them for a greater task." Then, Kane gave an expression of warning to the elderly god. "But if you don't, you will see your creations run rampant. They will seek the devices, and begin subjugating each other... as your kind taught them." Kane indicated the irony of that little fact with a smirk. "Their suffering can be prevented, your sins atoned, but you must give me the device."

Every word bit into Jupiter's soul, and he knew they were true. It was his kind that had brought the worst upon their creations. When Jupiter was still called Enki, he had even went so far as to use them to affect his ultimate plan for revenge. Even the search for the adar had taken its toll on both his people and the achievements they were responsible for. No matter how Jupiter looked at it, there was no way he could live long enough to see the end of all their hardships.

But then the words of his son, Ninurta, chimed through his murky thoughts:

"You cannot change what has happened. All you can change is what will happen."

With a look of certainty he had not felt since he had first spoken to Kane, Jupiter declared, "The people of this world are not yours to command, Kane. Leave, and do not return."

"If that is your wish," Kane said as he held his hands out to his side and bowed. Then he turned back toward the pod and began to walk toward it. Though this was an apparent victory for Jupiter, Kane stopped and faced Jupiter again. "But first, we will cleanse this world, and you will still be alive to witness it."

Suddenly, Kane slammed his hand into a panel that was protruding from the wall. Before Jupiter could react, his connection to the illusion within the tripod had dissipated. The golden light that had engulfed him was now fading away, though a few sparkles of its energy still hovered in the air around him. Now he was fully conscious of the tripod staring at him.

Just as he was about to try to activate the Piece of Eden with his mind again, the tripod's engines roared to life, and it began to stand at its full height. Though Jupiter stared at the orb in his hand and grit his teeth, attempting to force the device to unleash its power, his efforts were utterly fruitless. The tripod moved one of its legs, which crashed into a building nearby. Now it stood above Jupiter, who could only stand there and stare up at its underbelly as it began to move its other leg forward.

Kane had left Jupiter alive to witness the destruction of the species he had grown so close to in such a short time. The memory of Kingu and Enki's wife, Nintu, were drudged back into his mind as the tripod began its destructive march through the city. But this time, Jupiter would not allow things to get that far.

He would make Kane and his ilk pay for every life lost in the extermination that was to come.


	10. The Betrayal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Humanity is threatened with extinction by the alien threat. To save his children, the father must betray them.

A flash of lightning lit up the room in which Jupiter was standing. It was a lab he had long since abandoned, yet only recently rediscovered. Here, the cylindrical cryostasis pods stood in the center, where, as Enki, he had created and maintained his greatest creations: Adapa and Ena. Scattered throughout the room were all the tools and devices he had tirelessly worked on during the final days preceding the natural catastrophe. Part of the wall had been torn off, and he could now look out into the sky as storm clouds gathered in the distance.

As he began to tentatively step over every piece of debris, he felt a chill, despite his series of robes. He reached up and carefully removed his crown helmet, which he often wore with him in order to put some awe into his human subjects. Although they were no longer slaves, somebody had to keep them from slaughtering one another, and that was all Jupiter had done these past hundred years or so. What was so terrible was the fact that he had lost count of all those years that had gone by. The thought that he would one day no longer be here to watch over his creations terrified him the most, especially after hearing Kane's words.

_"But if you don't, you will see your creations run rampant. They will seek the devices and begin subjugating each other."_

Unfortunately, Kane was right. The premise that humanity would one day abuse its freedom was just as likely as how Jupiter's people - no, Enki's people - had abused their liberty by snatching it away from others. Even the host Jupiter now controlled was robbed of this basic right, and he did not wish to keep the man from it any longer than necessary. Thankfully, it had seemed his host had grown accustomed to Enki, the symbiote now wrapped around his brain stem. They communicated often, and they had both agreed to protect humanity... even if it was from themselves.

But now, as Jupiter scoured the room for the Tablets of Destiny, he realized that even his host couldn't live forever. One day, they would be gone, and humanity would be on its own. As he thought of this with his head bowed over a counter, a soft light began to glow from behind him.

"How deep is the river if you cannot see the bottom?" A feminine voice called out from behind him. Rather quickly, Jupiter turned and beheld a being that was far from physical. A bright glow encompassed its body, which had ribbons of light flowing around it, as if blown lightly by some supernal wind. Her face, however, was far more human. For a moment, Jupiter thought her face looked familiar.

"Minerva?" He carefully asked. "Are you-"

"I abandoned that name long ago, as you have yours," was Minerva's response. "You may now call me... Oma Desala."

"Oma Desala?" Jupiter's voice echoed as he turned to face her completely. "What has happened? Are you among the Ancients?"

"They are with me," Oma Desala replied with a frown. "But I am not with them."

"I see," Jupiter said thoughtfully. He recalled the days he began trapping numerous Ancients in order to use them as hosts. Their ascended bodies, even when given physical shape, were as capable of extended years as the ascended themselves. "They blame you for my mistake. That burden should fall upon my shoulders, not yours."

"You sought to give our people life," Desala whispered. "Judge yourself by the intentions of your actions."

"No." Jupiter looked away, though his gaze never lowered. "I sought after vengeance. That was but one more role in my greater plan. I was a fool to seek it."

Oma didn't respond at first. But as Jupiter continued to feel sorry for himself, she gingerly approached. Her form never once touched the ground, but rather hovered above it. As she reached out with a hand bathed in light, Jupiter wistfully regarded her. "In adversity, the true strength of your spirit is revealed. Only then can you know if you are good or evil. That is the choice only you can make. Do not abandon the opportunity."

Jupiter considered her for a moment longer before reaching out to take her by the hand. Then, the moment their fingertips touched, her light grew brighter until he was unable to see. The moment he became aware that his hand was not touching anything, the light faded, and there was no trace left of Jupiter's last confidant.

Nothing Jupiter did had any effect on the tripods. He had flooded so much of the Earth, he felt certain that many cultures in the future would regard his efforts as a global deluge. Nearly a week had passed, and he was still no closer to stopping the invaders - but they were getting closer to ending what little still remained of humanity. Now it was his plan to eradicate Kane and the creatures he brought with him that wore most heavily on his heart:

He would have to infect humanity, and he didn't know how many would die in the process. How ironic that the only way to save them was to betray them.

But the real question was not whether or not it would work. The real question was whether or not it was right. Would the ends justify the means? With no time to seek alternatives, this was Jupiter's only decision... but it was one he didn't want to make.

* * *

**-= Years later, written on the last page of the old journal =-**

This will be my final entry. My time is finally over. The rest of my people gone, I alone shoulder the responsibility of ridding the last evidence of our existence on this planet. We can't let our predecessors, the other Goa'uld, know we were ever here. And, despite our work together, humanity's in no position to use our technology responsibly.

It pains me to say that after Kane's attack, the children of our foolish ambitions have reverted into the savages we made them. The diseases I unleashed to infect the creatures harvesting them killed more than 90% of the human population as well. Now they live in small tribes, sick and frightened, the world undergoing terrible earthquakes and volcanic eruptions as a result of my attempts to shift whatever technology I could - including the alien Tripods themselves - into another dimension. I've corrected some areas by planting Seismic Pieces of Eden, but some of our Edenel were buried by the catastrophes before I could reach them.

My efforts to drive back the invaders caused more damage than I can ever undo, not only to humanity but to the planet too. Flooding did little to stop the invaders, only displacing the native wildlife and destroying their ecosystems. Whatever the diseases missed, the floods swept away. All our progress, every last city and temple we had, buried beneath the waves. Earth is nothing like it used to be. I made sure of that.

Oma asked I join her and the others in ascension. Jupiter, my host, hesitated more than once before deciding to take her offer. I didn't want to leave my work unfinished, and he feared his presence would drive the Ancients to chaos. He'd never truly accepted his people's decision not to interfere, be it by leaving their home galaxy to a race of despotic ascendants or abandoning this one to escape a horde of sentient machines.

But, more than that, we worried what Anu might do. His consciousness lies within my host's mind, put there when he passed command of our people over to Enlil. Should we ascend, he too would be released, free to wreak havoc on the Ancients.

Perhaps I'm just paranoid. Oma says there's nothing Anu could do that the others couldn't counter. To be sure, I asked how the Ancients banished one of their own. Exile to a mortal form, sans memories, seemed to be the favored punishment. Yet that only applied to smaller violations of conduct. If Anu tried to corrupt the other Ancients or behaved precisely like the Ancients' ambitious other half, he'd likely be killed in a black hole.

Jupiter once studied these phenomena, long before he ascended - and long before Enlil took him as a host. He theorized black holes may warp matter, but they don't dismantle it. On the opposite end, such matter would re-emerge from a white hole into another universe. Most couldn't withstand the deleterious gravitational effects, but ascendants could. Theoretically.

Again, Oma tried to alleviate our fears. She said none of it would matter. "One day, all that exists will be joined. Nothing Anu can do will stop that." Cryptic promises don't ease the mind. Wherever Anu goes, his curse would follow. Furthermore, ascendants moving from one universe to the next inevitably creates mirror images at their destination, powers and all. Could we really handle Anu and his shadow... his _Padomay_?

No. It's time to rest. Even I can see that. Jupiter and I must join our kinds in ascension. Whether or not I want to stay here and see humanity rebuild and renew, my host knows the dangers lurking beyond the galactic barrier. We need to be ready. But there's a personal reason I want to go. A question's been lingering in my mind since I wrote my final moments. It's a question I feel can only be answered once I'm looking down on this life.

Am I good or evil?


End file.
